Carnage
by beccaA
Summary: With a spate of murders in Sunnydale and Faith's Bloodlust worsening is she to blame? SEQUEL TO BAD MOON RISING.  Alt season 4 BF pairing  WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note: Hello people long time no see, well this is it the sequel to Bad Moon Rising. If you haven't read my previous fic it doesn't matter, although it might clear up any confusion in later chapters. **

**- All you really need to know is that Faith isn't a slayer she's a Garou, which is a type of werewolf.**

**- Wesley's a baddie and a party pooper :-( **

**- Faith no longer needs the ring of Khonsu, let's say that Tara cured her. I meant to clear that little problem up in the last fic but it slipped my mind.**

**- And this fic takes place about a month after Buffy and Faith got back from their vacation. So now that we've got the formalities out of the way lets get this show on the road. This fic is going to be slightly darker than the last one and for the record I have no idea where I'm going with it, let's just day you'll need a torch. **

**Carnage**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything. **

**Chapter 1 **

_There was blood everywhere, the walls and furniture where saturated with it and the smell of death hung in the air. Faith felt like she was floating as she made her way upstairs, the panic and need to find Buffy, to make sure she was okay, was overwhelming, blocking out all other thought. As she neared Buffy's bedroom door she heard, a deep guttural growl followed by a scream. Blind panic and fury where fighting with each other for control as she ran the rest of the way towards Buffy's room. Throwing the door open she saw Buffy standing in the centre of the room with her back to her. "Buffy?" she asked hesitantly, stepping cautiously into the room. Hearing her name Buffy turned to face her and Faith could only stare in horror at what she saw. Buffy's body was covered in lacerations and her neck bore a gaping wound, her clothes and skin where saturated with blood._

"_Why Faith? Why did you do this to me?" she asked sadly._

_Faith shook her head, tears falling from her eyes, "Oh God B, I didn't, I-I wouldn't." she stammered. She tried to move towards Buffy, but found herself unable to move. Looking down she saw the reason why. Hands had appeared from the floor and where holding her legs in place. She looked back up at Buffy as she heard her speak._

"_I thought you loved me, I trusted you Faith, I loved you and you spat on me. You spat on them." she said gesturing behind Faith. Turning round Faith saw with horror that it was the campers she had torn apart under Kennedy's orders. They where now nothing more than rotten corpses. _

"_You're a monster Faith, and you need to be punished. We demand it." Buffy said. The corpses nodded and began advancing towards her. Faith desperately struggled against the hands holding her in place, but they held firm. She could do nothing but watch as her dead victims descended on her screaming for her blood._

Faith sprang up gasping, her scream dying in her throat, before she got to voice it. The remnants of her dream fading as she realised where she was. Looking across at Buffy she saw that she was sleeping soundly. Breathing a sigh of relief she ran a hand through her hair, this had been the third night in a row that she'd had this dream and it always got to her. Looking at the clock she saw that it was only half three in the morning. Knowing their was no way she'd be going back to sleep any time soon, she decided to go and get some fresh air. She carefully got out of bed and took her packet of smokes from her jacket pocket, before quietly leaving the room.

**Motel - Downtown Sunnydale.**

The flickering neon sign bathed the dingy room and its single occupant in an eerie green glow. Making the mouldy stains in the corners of the room appear ten times larger. Wesley sat in the chair in the corner, surveying the room with disdain, still unable to believe what he had been reduced to. He had been a man that had had it all, a good upbringing, good schooling, he'd even managed to climb the ranks of the Watchers council, to become a Watcher and had had his own slayer. Now he was a fugitive hiding out in a stinking flea infested motel, too afraid to venture any further than the shop across the street. His only visitor, was the motel manager, occasionally checking to make sure he was still alive. _At least someone cares. _He thought.

Wesley had considered leaving Sunnydale, but then he realised there was no point. Why bother running if you've nowhere to run too. He knew without a doubt that he couldn't go back to England as the council would arrest him on the spot. Instead he sat in his room, drinking away his days waiting for a sign, something that would give his life meaning again.

A knock on the door broke him from his stupor. Climbing to his feet he aimlessly threw the empty scotch bottle onto the bed, watching vacantly as it rolled off not soon after, and smashed on the stained carpet. Whoever was at the door knocked again, this time with a hint of impatience.

Staggering over to the door, he attempted to look through the peephole, however this turned out to be pointless as it was too grimy to see through. Gathering himself together, he ran a hand through his hair, pathetically attempting to make himself appear presentable. Cautiously opening the door he saw was greeted by a man in a dark suit, Wesley's first thought was 'council' however when the man spoke, his American accent belayed those fears.

"Wesley Windham-Pryce?" The man asked. Wesley nodded numbly, unable to voice his reply. "I work for an important government organisation, who feel that they could greatly benefit from your knowledge and experience. If you'd be kind enough to let me have a minute of your time, I'd like to outline the proposition we have for you." The man couldn't help but smile as Wesley opened the motel door and quickly ushered him inside.

**Meanwhile - Buffy's room**

Buffy stirred and rolled over, she went to cuddle into Faith and was surprised to find her girlfriends side of the bed empty and cold. Frowning Buffy opened her eyes and saw that Faith wasn't in the room, which could only mean that she was outside again. Sighing Buffy threw the covers off of her and climbed out of bed.

Quietly padding down the hall, trying not to disturb her mom, she made her way downstairs. Stopping to peer out the kitchen window, she wasn't surprised to see Faith sitting on a chair on the porch smoking. Buffy might be blonde but she wasn't stupid. She knew that Faith had been having nightmares, if that's what you could call them, regularly for the past month. Whatever they where they where bad enough to keep her up at night, and she'd often be unable to get back to sleep. Buffy had pressed her about it once, but Faith had merely shrugged her off saying that they would pass, but Buffy knew there was more to it than that. Faith had been sleeping less which was making her cranky, and living with a cranky werewolf isn't all tea and roses, more growling, grunting and short fuses.

Buffy had respected Faith's wishes and had waited to see if the nightmares would pass themselves, and they hadn't, if anything she could see that they appeared to be getting worse. She was done waiting, Faith might be able to live in denial but Buffy couldn't. It was time to put her foot down.

**Backyard - Outside**

Faith turned her head as she heard the back door swing open, and saw Buffy striding towards her, with her own version of the resolve face firmly in place. She quickly stubbed out her cigarette and shoved it back in the packet, before turning her full attention to Buffy.

"Hey B, sorry if I woke ya." she said apologetically, holding her hand out to Buffy, who took it and let herself be pulled into Faith's lap.

"It's okay, I didn't hear you leave. I just woke up and found you gone, again." Buffy replied, the last word said quietly, causing Faith to sigh. "You're still having those dreams aren't you." Buffy stated, her tone gentle. She studied Faith's face intently and couldn't help but see the haunted look in her eyes. "I wish you'd tell me what's wrong with you." she said in concern.

"There's nothing wrong with me-" Faith started.

"Faith I'm not blind, or stupid. Something's bothering you, ever since we've got back you've been acting different. It's not just me that thinks so, the Scoobs can see it as well." Buffy said, her thumb rubbing soothing circles on the back of Faith's neck. "You haven't had a full night's sleep for over three weeks, and I've heard you calling out in your sleep." Faith looked at her in surprise causing Buffy to smile sadly. "You're not as good at hiding it as you thought."

Faith shook her head in disbelief, "I just thought that if I ignored them they'd go away and leave me alone." Buffy waited patiently as Faith tried to find the words to tell her what was wrong. "I've been having these dreams, about the people I killed, when I wake up from them I feel, dirty." she said quietly. "But sometimes I wake up feeling, energized. Like I need to hunt, to kill, most of the time the urge passes."

Buffy frowned, "What do you mean most of the time?" she asked gently.

"A couple of times the urge was so strong I had to go and find some vamps, to take the edge off." she said ashamedly. "I'm scared that I'll wake up and find that I've hurt you, or that the urge will be to strong and I'll lose control."

"How long have you felt like this?" Buffy asked.

"Since before the battle, I was gonna tell you I swear but it didn't seem important and I didn't want to worry you."

"Baby, you know you can tell me anything, no matter how stupid or small you think it is." Buffy said, cupping Faith's cheek in her palm. "That's what being in a relationship is all about, it comes with the job description." she said gently, causing Faith to smile. "In the morning you and I are going to go and see Giles, and we'll find out what's causing this and fix it." she said confidently, kissing Faith on the lips.

"But what if we can't." Faith asked grimly.

"We will." Buffy said firmly, her tone holding no room for argument. "C'mon lets go back to bed, it's still early." she said, climbing off of Faith's lap and gently tugging her hand. Faith picked up her cigarettes and let Buffy lead her back into the house. With the thoughts running through their heads they both knew that sleep was the furthest thing from their mind.

Tbc.

**A/N: Well what do you think? It's kind of a weird first chapter I know, but please review and let me know what you think. I'll try and get the next chapter up within the next couple of weeks at least :-) **

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	2. Chapter 2

**Authors' note: My brain is working in reverse, I know what to write for the end, and the middle of the story, it's the beginning that's the problem, so bare with me cause I can sense writers block on the horizon. Thank you to everybody that's reading and reviewing this fic, especially those of you who are still following from the start : - ) I will try reply to all reviews that are sent, it just might take me a wee while because I'm rushed off my feet at work :-) Anyway enjoy lol.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 2**

Joyce was surprised to come downstairs and find Faith and her daughter, fully dressed and drinking coffee in the kitchen. She quickly glanced at the clock on the wall, reassuring herself that she hadn't slept in. "Good morning you two." she greeted, startling them both. She shook her head in amusement, they may be here in body but obviously not in spirit.

"Oh, hey mom." Buffy greeted. "We made lots of coffee if you want some." she offered.

"Don't mind of I do." Joyce said as she got a mug and poured herself some. "So what are you two doing up so early? Not that I mind having company for breakfast but you usually don't surface for at least another four hours." she asked curiously.

"We couldn't sleep." They both answered at the same time, looking at each other sheepishly.

"So that's the reason for the vat of coffee." Joyce said in amusement, sitting at the table next to them.

"Pretty much." Faith said, before draining her mug. "Think I'm gonna hit the shower, see if it'll waken me up a little." she grinned, getting up from the table and heading out the room.

Joyce couldn't help but notice the concern on Buffy's face as she watched her leave the room.

"So do you want to tell me what's really going?" she asked curiously. "Normally nothing short of an earthquake would prise you two out of bed."

Buffy sighed, "I just found out that Faith's been having trouble sleeping for the past few months, she didn't say anything because she didn't think it was important. But I woke up last night and found her sitting outside, so I stayed up and kept her company. It wouldn't have felt right if I went to sleep knowing that she was still awake." she explained, leaving out the parts about the blood lust and nightmares. Her mom may be okay with her dating a werewolf, but it might freak her out if she told her about the violent urges Faith had been having. "We're going to go and see Giles this morning, see if he can figure out what's causing this."

"Wouldn't she be better off going to see a doctor? I'm sure they'd be able to give her something to help her sleep." Joyce said in concern.

"Faith doesn't really like doctors, besides what with the whole, not being human thing. It could get kind of messy." Buffy said. "Besides Giles knows everything, well almost everything. And if he doesn't know something you can guarantee he'll have a book about it." she said optimistically.

Joyce nodded in agreement. "Okay if you're both sure about it. Speaking of Rupert how is he these days? I haven't seen him in a while." she asked curiously.

"Giles is fine, apart from the whole unemployed thing, but he's optimistic about it which is good."

"Well you tell him that if he wants, I can see about getting him a job at the gallery. We have a few posts opening up, it's not work he would normally do but it's better than nothing." Joyce offered. "It'll help pay the bills and put food on the table." she said, getting up and putting her empty mug in the sink.

"Will do mom." Buffy said.

"Okay, well I'd better get going, we've got a new shipment of paintings being delivered so I might be late getting home, there's plenty of food in the fridge for the both of you, and if you need anything you have my cell number." Joyce said, kissing Buffy on the cheek she grabbed her bag and headed for the door, "Oh and honey don't forget to sign up for your college classes." she said firmly.

"Don't worry I won't." Buffy said sweetly, and received a sceptical look from her mom. "I won't forget I promise, I'll go straight there when we've finished at Giles's."

"How many times have I heard that." Joyce replied, "I'll see you later, good luck with Rupert." she called as she shut the door behind her.

Buffy shook her head and made her way back into the kitchen, truth be told she'd forgotten about starting UC Sunnydale and right now that was the furthest thing from her mind.

She could hear the shower running upstairs and her thought once again turned to her girlfriend. She could understand why Faith had thought that the dreams where unimportant, having dreams about people you'd killed was normal, it was how your mind coped with the guilt.

It wasn't the dreams that worried Buffy, it was the bloodlust that Faith had admitted to feeling, and she'd occasionally heard Faith talking to herself, as if arguing with someone in the room. The one thing Buffy feared most was Faith losing control, she'd had to fight Faith once before when she was under the control of the slave disc and that had been hard enough. Being the slayer she knew that if Faith lost control and couldn't be cured, it would fall on her to kill her, and that was a burden that she shared alone.

**Bathroom - upstairs**

As soon as she stepped into the shower, and the warm water hit her body, Faith felt her tension flow away. Closing her eyes she let the water stream over her, enjoying the feeling. Despite the fact that she hadn't slept for God knows how long, she felt surprisingly well. Since opening up to Buffy last night she felt, lighter, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. If Buffy was confident that Giles could fix this, then Faith was all for it. Hell she would give anything to have a decent night's sleep, even if it meant clipping Giles's toe nails with her teeth. She shuddered at the mental image and quickly washed her hair, she wanted to get to Giles' place sharpish and get this thing fixed, cause tonight she planned on sleeping like the dead, figuratively speaking.

She rinsed the soap from her hair, before shutting off the shower. Opening the shower door, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it round herself before stepping out and padding over to the sink. Wiping the steam from the mirror, she stared intently at her reflection, and was shocked at how haggard she looked. God only knows how she thought she could keep this hidden from Buffy and the Scoob's, even a blind man could see that she hadn't been sleeping.

She wiped at the bags under her eyes, half hoping that they would disappear if she scrubbed hard enough, but nope they where still there stubbornly refusing to budge. Sighing she quickly dried herself off and threw on the clothes, she'd brought with her.

She turned to leave the bathroom when she heard a noise behind her, looking round she saw nothing, shrugging her shoulders she carried on walking towards the door.

/ _Murderer!_ / Faith froze as she heard a voice hiss accusingly, knowing that there was no one else in the room with her, she threw open the bathroom door, expecting someone to be behind it but the hall was empty. Turning back into the room she thought she saw something move out the corner of her eye, but when she looked there was nothing there. She waited listening intently to see if she would hear the voice again, but the only noise that greeted her was the dripping of the shower head.

"I'm going fuckin nuts." she mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief, reaching her hand out for the door handle. Just as she thought she'd imagined it she heard the voice again.

/ _Murderer! _/

She froze in the doorway, she put her hand against the doorframe to steady herself and flinched as she came into contact with something warm and wet. Looking at where her hand lay, she saw that the wall was covered with blood. Cautiously turning round she saw with horror that blood had begun oozing from the walls, like wet paint, the stench of it filling the air, making her want to gag.

/ _Murderer! _/ The voice hissed.

"No! I'm not, I didn't mean to!" she said her voice shaking, "I'm not a murderer!"

/ _Murderer, murderer, murderer _/ The voice was now joined by others.

"I'm not a murderer!" Faith yelled.

Her words only caused the unseen voices to become louder and more forceful, she tried to back out of the room but found herself rooted to the spot, unable to move.

/ _MURDERER, MURDERER, MURDERER! _/ The voices yelled back at her. She put her hands over her ears trying to drown them out, but they seemed to be echoing inside her head.

"Shut up!" Faith pleaded, "Shut up, shut up, shut up! SHUT UP!" She clamped her eyes shut, trying to block out the sight of the blood pooling on the floor, slowly seeping towards her.

The voices stopped suddenly as someone pounded franticly on the other side of the bathroom door, "Faith! What's going on? Are you okay in there?" Faith almost sobbed with relief as she heard her girlfriends voice. Slowly removing her hands from her ears, she cautiously opened her eyes, and saw that everything was back to normal, blood no longer staining the walls and floors.

"Faith! Don't make me break down this door." Buffy called worriedly. Faith threw a shaking hand out and unlocked the door, throwing it open. "God baby are you okay? I heard you shouting." Buffy asked in concern, taking in Faith's shaken appearance.

"We need to see Giles now Buffy. I don't know how much longer I can go on like this." Faith replied, her voice wavering.

Buffy pulled her into a hug, and stroked her back soothingly, she could feel Faith shaking in her arms and knew that whatever had happened in the bathroom had effected her deeply. Buffy could only hope that Giles would have some answers as to what was causing this and that he would be able to fix it, if not, Buffy dreaded to think what could happen if it got worse.

**Meanwhile, Sewers - Downtown Sunnydale**

The sound of feet pounding through puddles, echoed throughout the sewer, as the vampire ran for all he was worth. In the distance he could hear the footfalls of his pursuers who where still giving chase. He ran round a corner and skidded in a pile of sewage, somehow managing to keep his balance he sighed in relief. However when he looked up and saw what was in front of him he skidded to a halt.

"Oh shi-" What ever else he was about to say was cut off as twenty thousand volts shot through his body, sending him crashing to the ground.

The soldier approached the fallen vampire warily. Keeping his gun aimed on the vamp, he nudged him with his boot, when he saw that it was definitely out for the count he knelt beside him and proceeded to restrain him. The soldier looked up as he saw his comrades come running out of the tunnel that the vampire had previously exited.

"Good work Agent." One of the soldiers said.

"Thank you Sir." He replied standing to salute the man that had praised him.

"Professor Walsh will be pleased with this specimen." The soldier said, he gestured to the two men standing behind him. "Let's get the hostile back to base, and remember to cover him up when you get outside, we don't want all our hard work going up in smoke." he commanded, the two men saluted him before doing as ordered.

"Agent Finn yet again you've proved yourself to be an asset to the Initiative. If it hadn't been for your ingenuity we might not have caught the hostile as quickly and efficiently as we did." the soldier said. "Which is why after careful consideration we'd like you to become involved in the OMEGA project."

Riley looked at the other soldier in puzzlement. "The OMEGA project?" he asked.

"All in good time Agent, you will be briefed on our return to the compound." The other man replied. "If it's alright with you I think it's about time we get out of this shit hole."

Riley laughed and followed the other man as they made their way out of the sewers and back to civilisation.

TBC.

**A/N: Well there you have it, please review and let me know what you think, cause I really have no idea where the start of this story's going. If anyone has any ideas about what they want to happen next let me know cause I'm open to ideas :-)**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note: Thank you to everybody that has been reading and reviewing, I'm glad that your liking the fic so far and I hope I don't disappoint cause the road ahead is going to be a wee bit bumpy : - ) Don't worry if some parts of this story don't seem to fit in cause they will all tie together eventually. My brain is finally kicking into gear and I have a rough idea of where I'm going with the fic now. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 3**

**Giles's House - early morning.**

Buffy banged impatiently on the door, they'd been standing out here for the past ten minutes and her patience was beginning to wear thin. "God what is taking him so long!" she exclaimed, banging harder on the door, she knew he was in there cause she could hear someone moving around, besides it wasn't as if Giles had anything better to do this early in the morning.

"Giles we know you're in there, I can hear your tweed pyjamas chafing!" Buffy yelled through the letterbox. She peered through it and saw light spill across the living room as his bedroom door opened. "Finally." she grumbled, standing back up. She glanced over at Faith who was standing quietly next to her, she hadn't spoken much since the incident in the bathroom, and she still looked pretty shaken up. Buffy reached out her hand and clasped Faith's reassuringly.

"Hey it'll be okay Giles will know what to do." she said gently. Faith smiled shakily and squeezed Buffy's hand.

They could hear Giles cursing to himself as he fumbled to open the door, which finally opened to reveal a rather disgruntled looking watcher who was clad only in a robe, which left little to the imagination. Under any other circumstances they would have found it funny or maybe even a little disturbing but they where both suffering from lack of sleep, and neither had the energy to comment on his dress sense.

"Buffy do you realise what time it is?" Giles said tiredly.

"Yes and if it wasn't important we wouldn't have bothered you, cause believe me we're normally in bed for at least another four hours, but this is urgent." she said seriously.

"What is it? Another apocalypse?" he asked worriedly.

"Rupert who is it?" a voice called from the bedroom. Buffy and Faith watched in shock as a woman came out of Giles's room wearing one of his shirts, they looked back at Giles and his robe and realisation sunk in, causing them both to shudder in disgust.

Buffy buried her face in her hands as she realised why it had taken Giles so long to come to the door. "Oh my God." she mumbled, "And just when I thought my therapy bill couldn't get any bigger."

Giles looked at them both in embarrassment, "Uh, Buffy, Faith, this is Olivia." Giles said, gesturing to Olivia who now stood beside him. "She's er, an old friend, she's staying over for a few days."

"Hello." Olivia said greeting the pair of them, "I couldn't pass through Sunnydale without looking up old Ripper. She said smiling sweetly at Giles, causing both Faith and Buffy to grimace.

"Uh Buffy and Faith where students of mine." Giles stammered, "How are things with you two?" he asked, changing the subject and trying to direct attention away from him.

"Pretty much the same as usual, in the sense that we need help." Buffy said looking at Giles pointedly.

"But this kinda looks like a bad time." Faith said looking at the pair of them awkwardly.

"No you guys talk. I'll just go and slip into something a little less comfortable." Olivia said, heading off towards the bedroom to get changed, giving the three of them some space.

Giles watched her leave before turning back to Buffy and Faith. "Well why don't you tell me what brings you here at this time in the morning." he asked curiously, leaning against the edge of the sofa.

Faith glanced at Buffy, who nodded at her encouragingly. "I've been having these nightmares for the past two months, and I've been finding it really hard to sleep." she said. "When I wake up from them I have a really strong urge to hurt somebody, and I've gotta go and find some vamps to take it out on." she said. "And I've been hearing and seeing things during the day." she added hesitantly, not wanting Giles to think she was going crazy.

Giles looked at her thoughtfully. "What kind of things?" he asked gently.

"Mainly the people I killed." she said quietly. "Sometimes they're laughing at me but most of the time they're accusing me of doing things, like hurting people."

"And what is it you see in your dreams?" he asked curiously.

Faith sighed, "I see myself killing them, sometimes I see myself hurting people that I care about, like B, and the scoobs. I'm just……I'm just worried I'm gonna hurt somebody." she said fear evident in her voice. Buffy placed a hand on the small of Faith's back and rubbed it soothingly, it was evident to the pair of them how scared Faith was at losing control.

"What do you thinks causing this?" Buffy asked in concern.

Giles shook his head perplexed, "I have to say that I honestly don't know. If you where just having the dreams, it could be put down to your subconscious dealing with the guilt and the hallucinations could be due to a lack of sleep, but the bloodlust? It doesn't seem to factor into those theories." he explained. "We shall have to start researching and see if we can find anything that may cause this. I'm afraid I don't know much about your people Faith, so I'm not sure if this is normal." he said apologetically. "Perhaps your clan may know something about it?" he suggested.

"No! no I don't want them involved." Faith said vehemently, earning surprised looks from the pair of them.

Giles nodded, "Okay." he said gently, deciding not to press the issue, as Faith was clearly not comfortable with the suggestion, although he made a mental note for Buffy to find out why, as there may be an underlying factor that Faith wasn't keen on sharing. "Well I'm afraid there is little that I can do at the moment. It would probably be best if you come back later, and we can round up the troops for research. I think it would probably be best for you to go and see Tara, she may be able to make something to help you sleep, at least until we find a way to stop these nightmares permanently." he said.

Faith nodded reluctantly, "Okay."

"Thanks Giles." Buffy said, smiling at him gratefully.

"Yeah, and sorry we interrupted your little party thing you had goin on." Faith added, causing Giles to blush.

"Uh not at all, you know I'm always here if you need anything, but next time phone ahead if your planning to come over unexpected." he said bashfully.

"Don't worry Giles, there's only so much mental scarring we can take before we get the hint." Buffy said, following Faith towards the door as he showed them out.

"Well I would just appreciate it if this wasn't spread around like idle gossip." he said, "After all I have a reputation to uphold."

"Chill G-man your secrets safe with us." Faith said, "We'll catch you later, we've got to go see a Wicca bout a sleeping potion." she said, shepherding Buffy out of the door they began to head off down the path.

"Well good luck, and tell the others that we're meeting here at two." He called after them, he watched them go before closing the door.

Olivia chose that moment to come out of the bedroom, he saw that she was now fully clothed, "Is that them gone?" she asked, Giles nodded. "Did you help them?"

Giles smiled, "Uh, I think so."

"Good that's what I like to hear." she said. Giles watched her in confusion as she grabbed her purse and car keys from the table. She looked up and saw the look on his face. "I'm just going to go out and buy us something nice for breakfast, my way of saying thanks for the wonderful evening." she said smiling playfully.

"Uh, of course. Do you need some money?" he asked.

"No Rupert this is my treat." she said heading for the door, "I'll only be a gone a few minutes." she said.

She left the house and quickly got into her car, making sure Giles wasn't looking out the window, she pulled a cell phone from the glove compartment and hit the first number on speed dial. The number rang out for a few seconds before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hi it's me. The rumours are true, there _is_ a Garou in Sunnydale." she said excitedly. "No I'm not bloody lying I saw it with my own eyes. It will provide the perfect scapegoat for us when we make our move. We don't have to worry about an alibi, I'm working on that as we speak." she said, glancing in the mirror she looked back at Giles house as she pulled out of the driveway, and drove off down the road.

**TBC.**

**A/N: Sorry the update is a short one but if I hadn't stopped it where I did it would have been too long, the next chapter will follow on directly from this and I should hopefully post it within the next couple of weeks : - )**

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	4. Chapter 4

**Authors note: Hello again, its update time and this one's a long one, or at least a bit longer than usual. As you can tell I'm trying to speed the story up a little, let me know if I'm going too fast and I'll try and slow down :-) Thanks again to everyone who reviewed it means a lot to me. For anyone whose wondering what time period we're on, this is still the same day as the last two chapters but it's probably the afternoon now, just thought I'd explain cause I was confused myself.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 4**

**Initiative compound - Sunnydale**

Once the hostile had been delivered to the compound and was safely restrained in its cell, Riley was led to what could only be described as a large laboratory. Where he was greeted by Professor Walsh and Commander Stevenson. "Ah Agent Finn we've been expecting you." Professor Walsh said. "I trust you where successful with capturing the hostile?" she asked expectantly.

"Yes ma'am." He replied.

"Excellent, this will make what we're about to explain easier for you to understand." She said. "If you would care to follow me, everything should be set up for the demonstration."

He followed her to the back of the lab, where he saw that the back wall was a large window that looked into what appeared to be an examination room. In the centre of the room where two tables, that resembled something similar to a CT scanner, and they where spaced a couple of metres apart. Strapped to one of the tables was the vampire that he had captured in the sewers. He assumed that the glass was bullet proof as the vampire appeared to be pleading with the guards in the room but he was unable to hear anything from where he was standing.

Professor Walsh pressed a button on the control panel beside her and spoke through a microphone to the scientists in the other room. "You may bring in the test subject now." she ordered. The men nodded and opened a door in the room, a soldier entered and walked over to the other table, where he lay down and was securely strapped in. "Now Agent Finn, what you are about to witness is history in the making. The laboratory you are standing in and the room in front of you are the heart of the OMEGA project." she explained, an undercurrent of pride in her tone.

"OMEGA is classified, so much so that no one else in the Initiative is aware that it exists." Commander Stevenson stated.

"You are probably wondering what the project's aim is?" she asked, seeing the look of confusion on Riley's face. "OMEGA stands for Organization of Mutant Energy and Genetic Absorption. We literally remove a hostiles unique abilities and replant them into a human host. In theory we are creating our own brand of super human soldiers." she explained.

"Excuse me ma'am but is this process safe?" Riley asked in concern.

"We only use energy from hostiles whose genetic make up is similar to humans, this ensures virtually no risk of rejection and in all of the test subjects we have used, we have found the process to have been a complete success with no known side effects." she said. "All of the people who participate in this process are willing volunteers, except for the hostiles themselves of course, who are killed in the process." she said.

"Your fortunate enough Agent Finn, to be able to witness this process here today." Commander Stevenson said. "Most men would give their right arm to even set foot in this laboratory."

"Do you have any questions Agent?" Professor Walsh asked.

"No ma'am not at the moment." Riley said, trying to process everything he had just heard.

"Well gentleman if we're ready, let's begin." she said. She turned to the control panel and began programming the machine, the lights in the examination room flickered as the machine began to power up. The vampires struggles became more frantic as it realised what was happening, Riley noted that the soldier on the opposite table appeared unfazed. The cylindrical machine around the head of the vampires table began to spin, gradually increasing in speed until it was nothing more than a blur. The vampire began writhing in agony as a red light appeared from his chest and was sucked up into the machine above him. Glancing at the table the soldier was on, Riley saw that the machine was also spinning except it was shooting the beam of light onto the soldier, who appeared to be absorbing the power, his face showing no pain, only pleasure. Professor Walsh watched the transfer intently, when she saw that all of the vampires power had been absorbed she began to power down the machine. The scientists in the examination room moved to untie the soldier on the table, while the vampire merely turned to dust. The soldier sat up and flexed his muscles, one of the scientists gave him a metal pole and Riley watched in awe as he easily bent it in half.

"As you can see the effects of the energy transfer are immediate. This soldier is now ten times faster and stronger than a normal human being, making him far more superior in hand to hand combat. His senses will also be finely tuned, allowing him to see and hear and smell far better than any human is capable of, he will also be able to see in the dark, making it impossible for enemies to hide under cover of darkness."

"He is indeed a super human." A voice commented from behind Riley.

"Ah Agent Finn let me introduce you to our head of demonology, this is the man that is responsible for ensuring which hostiles are compatible for the transfer process, if it weren't for his knowledge we wouldn't have been able to get where we are today." Commander Stevenson said.

Riley shook the mans hand, "Agent Riley Finn, pleased to meet you sir." he said.

"Wesley Windham-Pryce." The man smiled, "And the pleasures all mine."

**Giles's House - Afternoon**

Willow and Buffy where currently sat on the sofa in Giles' living room, trying to begin the long task of researching, however they're minds where currently elsewhere. As Faith and Tara where upstairs in Giles spare room, taking a tour of Faith's mind, in a hope to find out what was causing the dreams and hallucinations.

"Do you think they're okay up there?" Buffy asked glancing upstairs, "It's been pretty quiet." she said.

"They should be okay, I mean Tara knows what she's doing, and Giles is up there with them, encase anything goes wrong, not that it will!" she added hastily, seeing the look of worry on Buffy's face.

Buffy closed the book she had been holding and tossed it onto the coffee table. "I hate this." she said running a hand through her hair, "I hate sitting down here doing nothing, I just feel-"

"-Powerless." Willow finished, nodding in understanding, "I know what you mean, but we're helping, we're researching, which is boring but good." she said trying to sound reassuring however she didn't seem to convincing. They both sat in silence, each worrying about their partners upstairs.

**Meanwhile upstairs - Giles spare room.**

Faith and Tara sat opposite each other on the floor, while Giles positioned himself on the other side of the room, with the tranquilliser gun that Faith had requested he bring, just encase anything happened while they where in the trance. Faith couldn't live with herself if she hurt either of them while she was under the spell.

She watched Tara as she mixed up some type of green goo which looked a lot like mushy peas. "Please don't say I've gotta eat that stuff, cause it smells funky." Faith said, eyeing the goo in disgust.

Tara smiled and shook her head, "D-don't worry, you just have to s-spread it on your hand, it'll prevent us from becoming separated in the d-dreamscape." she explained.

"Okay no problem, as long as the stuff washes off I'm fine with that." Faith said grinning in relief, she held her hand out, letting Tara spread the mixture onto her palm and was surprised to find that the paste was warm, not cold as she'd imagined it would be. Tara did the same to her palm, before joining hands with Faith.

"Giles m-make sure that we aren't disturbed." she said looking at Giles seriously.

"Okay, but if I suspect that something is wrong I won't hesitate to pull you two out of there." he warned.

Tara smiled at him and turned back to Faith "A-are you ready?" she asked looking at her in concern.

Faith took a deep breath and nodded, "Ready as I'll ever be." They both closed their eyes and began chanting the Latin verse necessary for opening up the dreamscape. As they began the spell Faith felt the room beginning to spin, and had to resist the urge to open her eyes, knowing that if she did it would break the spell. She could feel air rushing around them and could barely hear Tara's voice, it felt as if she was being sucked into the heart of a tornado. Just as she was sure that she was going to get sucked through the ceiling, the wind ceased and the room stopped spinning.

"I-it's okay Faith you can open your eyes now." Tara said encouragingly.

Faith cautiously opened her eyes and was surprised to see that they where no longer in Giles's spare room, but in her old house in Boston. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." she mumbled, looking around her in confusion.

"Where are we Faith?" Tara asked in confusion, they appeared to be in a living room.

"It's the house I grew up in, in Boston." She replied, looking round the room in awe. "God it's just how I remember it." They both jumped as they heard a squeal of laughter from the kitchen, and saw a small girl with dark hair come flying into the living room as if the devil himself was on her heels. Tara saw that she must have been around four or five, and took her to be Faith's younger sister.

"Oh God." Faith whispered, staring sadly at the scene before her, she walked over to the young girl who was hiding behind the sofa, and knelt down beside her. She reached her hand out to touch her but her hand merely went through her as if she was a ghost.

"Teren Lehane, you'd better get back here and help me clean up this mess young lady." A woman called playfully from the kitchen, when she entered the living room Tara saw that she was covered in flour.

She glanced over at Faith and saw that she'd frozen in shock, tears silently falling down her face. Tara knew that Faith's mother and sister had been killed when she was younger, and she knew how hard this must be for her. However there was a reason why they had been bought here and they couldn't leave until they knew what that was. Tara walked over to her friend and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Faith?" she called gently.

Faith shook herself as if coming out of a trance and looked up at Tara fearfully, "We have to get out of her, he's coming." Faith said her voice shaking.

Tara looked at her in concern, "Whose coming?" she asked, watching Faith as she hurriedly climbed to her feet and wiped the tears from her eyes. The scene before them suddenly changed and the room became colder and darker. The front door burst open and a tall dark man stood in the doorway, Tara could see that his eyes where glowing red, and she sensed a strong malevolence surrounding him.

"My father." Faith whispered, backing away from the scene before them, she closed her eyes willing it all to disappear, as she knew what was coming next.

The man in the doorway entered the house, causing Faith's mother to put herself between him and her young daughter. "Teren you be a good girl for mommy and go hide in your room okay, don't come out till mommy tells you to." she ordered. The young girl nodded and ran for her bedroom. Faith's father growled and made to go after her, but Faith's mother grabbed him by the arm and held him back. "Ryan listen to me, please don't do this, this isn't you. We can beat this together if you'll let me in." she pleaded. "Please honey." The mans eyes softened and flickered slightly and Tara could see that he appeared to be fighting something inside him. "Please Ryan I know you're in there, come back to us." Faith's mother pleaded.

Tara could see that whatever had taken over him appeared to be too strong, as he lost what little control he had left, he growled and flung Faith's mother across the room, before turning and making his way towards the bedroom. Faith's mother sprung to her feet and let out a roar of anguish before changing into her wolf form and throwing herself at her husband, knocking him to the ground. Faith's father changed into his wolf and lunged at her mother.

Before they could attack each other the scene suddenly seemed to speed up and images began to flash before Tara's eyes, she saw the two Garou fighting, before the scene changed to the aftermath of the fight and she saw the blood-soaked bodies of Faith's mother and sister. The scene changed again and she saw a young Faith and Drake coming home to find the bodies of their mother and sister. There was another flash and the scene changed again, only this time Tara found herself standing in a clearing in the middle of a forest. Looking around in confusion she saw Faith sitting on the ground behind her, tears running down her face.

Before she could say anything to comfort her friend someone came barrelling through the trees beside her and staggered into the middle of the clearing, before falling heavily to the ground. .

"No, no, won't stop, won't stop." he mumbled covering his ears, as if trying to drown out a voice that only he could hear. "Won't leave me alone." he sobbed. Tara saw that it was Faith's father, she could sense that the malevolence from before appeared to have gone, leaving him broken.

There was more crashing as several more Garou came after him, they stopped when they saw that he had given up, and was lying curled up on the ground whimpering.

"You can't run forever Ryan, we would have caught you eventually." One of the Garou said, his voice showing no remorse. "Marcus wants you dead for what you've done. The seal should never have been broken, you've put our clan in danger and for that you must pay with your life."

The Garou's changed into their wolf forms and advanced on Ryan, his screams of agony filled the clearing as he was torn to pieces. Tara was shocked and saddened to see a young Faith standing at the back of the pack, watching her father being killed.

The scene suddenly froze, as if the memory had been put on pause, and Tara saw a black mist rise from the body of Faith's father, it hovered in the air for several seconds before plunging into a young Faith, Tara saw that her eyes glowed red before turning back to their normal brown colour, then as if nothing had happened the Garou before them unfroze and resumed the slaying of Faith's father.

"What the fuck! I don't remember that!" Faith exclaimed, jumping to her feet, "What the hell was that black shit!" she asked, panic evident in her voice.

"I-I don't know but it looked l-like the same thing t-that had t-taken over your father." Tara stammered looking at Faith in concern.

"Shit!" Faith cursed, "I knew something was wrong, I tried to tell Drake but he wouldn't listen, he said I wouldn't end up like dad."

"A-at least we have more information, w-we'll be able to find out what t-type of demon it is and exorcise it." Tara said reassuringly. "W-we won't let it do to you what it did to your dad." she said with conviction.

_/You can't stop what's already begun witch/ _A voice hissed, they could both sense the malevolent presence that they had witnessed earlier only this time it appeared to be far stronger. Tara realised with dread that it had escaped from Faith's memories and was actually with them inside the dreamscape.

_/The Bloodlust has been awoken and it needs to be sated/ _The voice hissed again, this time it came from beside Faith. Tara watched in horror as a black missed appeared beside Faith and began circling round about her. Faith tried to move but she was held firmly by an invisible force, she could feel the entity seeping into her, and knew she only had a few seconds before she lost control. "Tara…..run." she choked, she threw her head back and screamed as the dark force slammed into her. Her eyes turned red as the darkness took hold and her scream quickly tapered off into a roar of fury as she changed into her wolf. Tara hesitated for a split second before turning and running into the forest, with Faith hot on her tail.

**Giles's house - Living room**

Buffy had long since given up trying to read the books as her mind was too busy worrying about her girlfriend upstairs, she was content enough to flick through them and look at the pictures. "There sure are some ugly demons out there." she commented as she came across a demon that looked like a cross between a pilot fish and Joan Rivers. Willow nodded absently and was about to reply when she was interrupted by yelling from upstairs.

They both dropped their books and ran for the stairs, when they got to the spare room they saw Giles comforting a distressed Tara who was staring fearfully at Faith. "Oh God Tara!" Willow called, "Are you okay?" she asked in concern, kneeling beside her friend.

Tara shook her head and pointed at Faith, who was beginning to come round. Buffy tried to make her way to Faith's side when Tara stopped her with a hand on her arm, "T-that's n-not F-Faith." Tara stammered fearfully. "She's not in c-control."

Faith opened her eyes and Tara saw that they where red, which meant that the dark entity had followed them back from the dreamscape. Faith growled and sprang effortlessly to her feet, she growled angrily at the three humans in the room before changing into her wolf form. Giles grabbed the tranquilliser gun and fired a dart which she easily evaded, he fired another three but she easily swatted them from the air, she roared furiously before turning and leaping through the window, sending glass flying into the street below. Buffy ran to the window in time to see Faith run off down the street, heading for the heart of Sunnydale.

**TBC.**

**A/N: Dun Dun Duh! Sorry if it's a bit rushed but I did warn you lol. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I always re-read what I right but there are only so many times you can read it before you gloss over mistakes by accident :-)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors note: I just realised that Giles doesn't have stairs in his house in real life, or at least I don't think he does, which is why I've decided he has a secret staircase out the back that nobody ever sees or speaks of lol. Okay now that I've fixed that little faux pas lets get on with the show :-) oh and thanks again for the reviews guys, it lets me know that people are enjoying the fic. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything**

**Chapter 5**

Buffy could only stare at the broken window in shock, things had gone from bad to worse and her mind was having trouble processing what had just happened. She could hear Giles and the others talking franticly behind her as they tried to find out what had happened in the dreamscape, but Buffy couldn't care. All she wanted was to find Faith and bring her back before something happened. Determination filling her being, she turned and pushed past her friends, quickly making her way downstairs.

"Buffy wait!" Giles called, as he followed her down the stairs. "You can't go after her alone, we don't know how dangerous she is." he said.

"I need to find her Giles." Buffy said firmly, heading through the living room and towards the front door.

"You don't know what you're up against." Giles reasoned.

Buffy spun to face him "I don't have time to sit around and read books and drink tea, not while she's out there doing God only knows what! It's the middle of the day, anyone and everyone will see her and it'll be all over the news within hours. I need to go and get her back before something happens." she finished quietly.

Giles sighed and walked over to a chest in the corner of the room, he opened it and removed a small silver dagger. "At least take this with you for protection." he said holding it out to her.

Buffy shook her head vehemently, "No, she won't hurt me, I won't need it."

"I pray you won't have to use it, but at least take it to humour me." he said smiling sadly. Buffy reluctantly took the dagger, tucking it into the waistband of her trousers. "We'll perform a locator spell and call you with her location." he said, opening the door for Buffy.

"Wish me luck." Buffy said sadly, as she left the house.

"Good luck Buffy, and be careful." he called, and watched her run off down the street, following Faith's trail. "Both of you." he said quietly, before closing the door and heading back upstairs.

**Meanwhile - Alleyway, Main street, Sunnydale**

Olivia smiled as she sensed the dark essence that was careering towards the centre of Sunnydale. The Garou had unwittingly released the Entity from the dreamscape, she couldn't have planned this better herself. Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket she flipped it open and pressed speed dial, when the person on the other end picked up she didn't give them a chance to speak. "There's been a change of plan, the Garou is possessed with the Entity, which gives us the perfect cover to make our move. I'll lure it towards me, no doubt the slayer will not be far behind which means she'll arrive in time to catch it in the act." she explained, the person on the other end of the line was just able to acknowledge her before she quickly cut them off.

Stepping out of the alley she saw a young man walking towards her, quickly looking round the street she saw that the street was mainly deserted, screaming in the distance suggested that the Garou was causing a ruckus which had no doubt caught everyone else's attention, giving her the perfect cover for what she was about to do. When the man was parallel to her she grabbed him by the throat and dragged him into the alley.

"What are you doin you crazy bit-" He was silenced before he could finish his sentence as Olivia morphed into her demon visage and tore his throat out. She let his body drop to the ground, and stared at it nonchalantly. She wouldn't have long before the Garou picked up the scent of blood, she quickly knelt beside the corpse. "Guess I'd better make this look authentic." she said, flicking her fingers she released her claws and set to work.

**Giles's house - Living room**

Willow stood at the table holding a crystal over a map of Sunnydale, trying to scry for Faith's location. The locator spell had failed and they where forced to go back to basics. The crystal swung violently as Faith was constantly on the move.

"Any luck?" Giles asked hopefully as he left the kitchen.

Willow shook her head, "No I can't get a fix on her location until she stops moving, at the moment according to the crystal she's everywhere." she said. "What about the evil misty thing that Tara described, did you find out what it is?" she asked.

"No such luck I'm afraid, the characteristics are unlike any demon I've ever heard of. From what we know from Faith's memories it has something to do with some sort of seal that was broken by her father. However any information about Garou culture and history is scarce at the best of times."

"Why don't we contact Faith's clan, they're bound to know something?" Willow asked.

Tara who had been silently listening to the conversation, suddenly interrupted them, "No! I saw what they d-did to Faith's father, we c-can't let them do the same to her." she said firmly, earning a surprised look from Willow.

Giles nodded thoughtfully, "Faith was rather adamant that her clan weren't to be involved."

"I-In the dreamscape one of the Garou's mentioned someone called Marcus, and that he wanted Faith's father dead because he'd put the clan in danger." Tara said.

Giles looked at her thoughtfully, "Marcus is the chief elder of the clan, if anyone would know all about their history it would be him. I suppose he had the clans best interests at heart, I mean from what you've told us her father was obviously out of control, especially if he'd managed to kill his mate and his child."

"When I saw him, the darkness was in him but he wasn't strong enough to fight it." Tara said. "I could feel his pain, I-it's like he was trapped in his own mind and was forced to watch himself kill his family. It drove him c-crazy." she said sadly.

"And it would appear that the same thing is happening to Faith." Giles said grimly.

"N-not if I have anything to say about it." Tara said quietly, Willow and Giles watched as she stood up and made her way back over to the pile of books on the coffee table, and began searching for anything that might help Faith.

Willow sighed, "I hope Buffy's doing better than we are." she said, turning back to the map she continued scrying, hoping that Faith would stand still long enough for them to get a reading.

**Meanwhile - Centre of Town**

Buffy was becoming frantic, she'd followed Faith's trail to the centre of town where it had run cold. As soon as she neared the centre of Sunnydale's Main Street she was greeted with chaos. The air was filled with the sound of car horns and people screaming, and from what she could see the roads where grid locked due to numerous collisions. Dozens of News vans where parked on the sidewalk, their reporters fighting to get the best view of the scene. Buffy gave them a wide berth, she saw a cop talking to a driver of one of the cars and made her way over to them, what she heard confirmed her fears.

"Sir if you could just calm down and tell me in your own words what happened." The cop said, hurriedly writing down the mans statement as he spoke.

"I was jus drivin along and this big wolf thing jus came out of nowhere. Before I could slam on the brakes it jumped onto the hood of my car." The man ran a shaking had through his hair before continuing. "It jus glared at me, fuck it's eyes man they where red I'll never forget them."

"What happened next?" The cop asked, looking at the man in disbelief.

"I thought it was gonna bust through the window or something but it stopped like it was smelling something, then it just leapt across the road and climbed up the side of that building." he stammered pointing to the store across the street.

Buffy knew that with Faith taking to the rooftops it would make following her trail a lot harder. She was about to run towards the store the man had pointed at when her cell phone rang in her pocket. Digging her cell out she hurriedly answered it. "Please tell me you've found her?" she pleaded.

"She's stopped moving, she's in an alleyway behind the bank just off Main street." Willow said, "You'd better hurry Buffy and be careful."

"I will, thanks Wills." she replied, quickly hanging up and shoving her cell in her coat pocket, she took off sprinting for the alley, praying that Faith would still be there by the time she got there.

**Initiative Compound **

Commandos scrambled to the main doors where they waited to be briefed. All they knew was that there was a hostile loose in daylight hours, posing a serious risk to civilians. Wesley came out of the office near the hanger doors and stood in front of the elite soldiers.

"Gentleman, the hostile you are about to encounter today is extremely dangerous. It is a Garou, a member of the lycan species, which means that if it bites any of you and you happen to survive you _will_ become infected. The main things you should know are that it is fast and that it can also climb walls, making it easy for it to escape when cornered. It is allergic to silver, however its main weakness is the slayer. It would do anything to protect her, if you find the slayer no doubt the Garou won't be far behind." he explained. "Our surveillance tells us that the Garou is in an alley off of Main street. If we find that there is a change in location you will all be notified right away." The Commandos all nodded, and began shouldering there weapons. "One last thing before you go, on this mission you will be led by Agent Finn." Wesley said. Stepping aside to let Riley come up to the head of the group.

"This mission is purely capture only, the initiative have an interest in this hostile so it is imperative that we capture it alive." Riley said, his men nodded in affirmation. "With that said lets head out."

Wesley watched the commandos pour out the hanger doors , he turned when he heard Professor Walsh behind him. "This hostile will be a perfect candidate for the OMEGA project, you've exceeded yourself again Mr Pryce." she said. "How do you know that it has a fondness for the slayer?" she asked curiously.

"Let's just say that they're old friends of mine." He replied grinning.

**Tbc.**

**A/N: Who will get to Faith first! Stay tuned and you might just find out :-)**

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	6. Chapter 6 Part one

**Authors note: Thanks to everyone who took the time to review, wow can't believe you're all still with me on this one. Just so you know, liquid silver will kill a Garou if it enters their bloodstream (i.e slave disc) where as solid silver (i.e. dagger) won't kill a Garou it will only burn like hell. I was going to put a bit of blurb in the fic about it just encase anybody got confused but I didn't, sorry.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 6 (Part one)**

**Alley - Main street, Sunnydale**

Faith perched on the ledge of the rooftop, looking down into the alley below. She'd tracked the scent of blood here and the smell was overpowering her. It had taken all of her willpower to get away from Buffy and her friends and to avoid the humans in the streets below. She'd tried to run towards the forest, but as soon as she picked up the scent of blood the Entity had became stronger, forcing her to make her way through the town. And now that she could practically taste the blood that lay below her, she found the Entity rising to the surface once more.

Jumping off the ledge she landed on all fours on the ground, inside she cried out in revulsion at the scene that greeted her, the mutilated body of what was once a man, lay in pieces on the ground, his blood coating everything in sight. She desperately tried to fight against the darkness within her as she found herself walking towards the mans remains, however her body refused to cooperate, she was merely a prisoner in her own mind, forced to watch the scene before her. Groaning in a mixture of ecstasy and disgust, she crouched down and began to feed. She didn't hear Olivia as she slunk off into the street. She didn't hear her mate arrive not long after. She didn't hear anything except the sound of her own unheard pleas as she lost the last of her sanity.

**Meanwhile - Giles's car**

The three of them sat in silence as they drove towards Main street, they prayed that Buffy had managed to catch Faith safely and that neither of their friends where harmed, however the likelihood of that happening was slim. Giles reached out and turned the radio on, in an effort to break the uncomfortable silence that had filled the car.

_// In other news, police are urging the residents of Sunnydale California to remain in their homes until further notice. Numerous sightings of a large beast have been reported within the city centre causing chaos, according to eyewitnesses, it leapt form car to car, terrorising the drivers inside before heading onto the rooftops where it was quickly lost by police. All major roads within the town have quickly became grid locked, due to multiple car pile ups, caused by this creature. It is not known if anyone has been attacked by the animal, however there are several people injured due to RTA's , and those who have seen the beast have been left severely traumatised. _

_Animal wardens believe this could be the same animal that attacked a group of campers several months ago, and are working closely with the police in attempts to capture and identify the creature. In the meantime, police are advising residents to avoid it at all costs and ensure that they keep all doors and windows locked, and to keep their pets inside. If there are any more sightings of the beast residents should call the police or animal wardens immediately on 155 - //_

Giles switched the radio off, and stepped on the gas, the roads may be grid locked, but he knew his fare share of shortcuts, he was determined to get to Buffy and Faith before anybody else beat them to it. "This is bad, very bad." Willow mumbled, gripping onto the armrest tightly as Giles flew round the corner at more than twice the speed limit.

**Alley - Main street, Sunnydale**

As Buffy entered the alleyway a figure pushed past her as they ran out onto the street, however she paid them little attention as she could only stare in horror at the scene that greeted her. In the middle of the bloodstained alley was her girlfriend, who was crouched over the remains of a young man, the sound of bones crunching filled the alley as Faith devoured his remains.

Buffy stepped back in shock and banged into a trashcan, causing Faith's head to shoot up at the sudden noise, blood dripping from her snout. Faith growled and stood up on her back legs, easily towering over the fear stricken slayer.

Buffy felt her heartbreak as she stared into her girlfriends red eyes, as she saw no remnants of the person she loved, all that was left was death and destruction. Forcing herself to remain strong, she stood firm as Faith began to slowly advance towards her.

"Faith, baby I know you can hear me, I need you to fight against this." she pleaded, trying desperately to get through to her girlfriend. Faith growled, Buffy's words having no effect, they merely served to stoke the Entity's rage, causing Faith's eyes to burn bright red. Buffy braced herself as Faith suddenly leapt towards her, crouching low to the ground she quickly rolled underneath her as Faith leapt over her head, coming up behind her, she grabbed Faith by the tail and swung her towards the back of the alley, where she collided with the wall before hitting the ground hard.

Roaring furiously, Faith climbed to her feet and ran towards Buffy, who prepared to dive out of the way again, only to find that Faith had anticipated her move and had leapt onto the wall beside her, climbing well out of her reach.

Buffy realised with dread that Faith's attention was no longer on her but on the street behind her. She knew she couldn't allow Faith to escape back onto the streets, now was her only chance to capture her and she wasn't going to give up easily. Grabbing the trash can lid, she threw it towards Faith's head just as she was about to run for the mouth of the alley. Faith knocked the lid from the air before it could hit her, however it had the desired effect as her sole attention was now directed back at Buffy. Faster than Buffy could anticipate, Faith had leapt across the length of the alley onto the wall opposite, before Buffy could turn to face her she felt Faith's hand round her throat and felt herself being lifted into the air. Finding herself unable to breath she franticly started beating at Faith's arms, however Faith's grip didn't falter. Buffy could feel panic beginning to overwhelm her as black spots began dancing in front of her eyes. It was then she remembered the dagger Giles's had gave her. Reaching into the waistband of her trousers she grabbed the dagger and plunged it into Faith's forearm.

Faith yelped in pain and released her grip, sending Buffy crashing to the ground where she lay gasping for breath. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as smoke streamed from Faith's wound as the silver burned her skin, she tried to pull the dagger out but she only caused herself more pain as the silver burned into her hand.

Buffy knew she had to act fast while Faith was distracted. Pushing off the ground she flipped onto her feet, grabbing Faith's leg she easily pulled her from her position on the wall, sending her to the ground, grabbing the dagger she wrenched it out of Faith's arm, causing her to cry out in pain. The next thing she knew, her legs where swept out from beneath her, and she was lying on the ground, with Faith on top of her pinning her down. She found herself unable to gain leverage to throw her off, and looking around she saw nothing that could be used as a weapon, she was trapped, and for the first time in her life Buffy was terrified.

"Faith, please don't do this." she pleaded, flinching as Faith roared and bared her teeth, "Baby please fight this, please come back to me." she felt hope fill her as Faith's eyes flickered slightly. "That's it, Faith you're stronger than this, don't let it beat you like it did your father."

Faith's eyes flickered again and Buffy felt the death grip on her shoulders begin to loosen. "Come back to me." she pleaded.

Faith cried out in pain and rolled off of Buffy, clutching her head she began to writhe on the ground as she fought to suppress the Entity in her head. Buffy backed up against the alley wall and watched as Faith writhed in agony as a dark mist seeped from her pores. The mist hung in the air for a few seconds before slowly dissipating. Once it had gone Faith slowly changed back into her human form, and lay curled up on the ground, her body shaking as she was wracked with sobs.

"Faith?" Buffy asked hesitantly, she wanted nothing more than to gather Faith in her arms however she needed to know that her girlfriend was back in control.

Hearing her mates voice, Faith slowly sat up, staring at her blood soaked hands in shock before turning to face Buffy with pain filled eyes. "I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to." she sobbed. "Didn't mean to, bad, bad."

Buffy sobbed in relief and scrambled over to Faith's side, pulling her into her arms. "Ssh baby, it's okay." she said soothingly, ignoring her own tears as they fell silently down her face. She hugged Faith tightly, and could feel her shaking in her arms, as she buried her face in her hair.

"I'm bad, I'm bad, I'm bad." Faith whispered her voice thick with tears. "Tried to stop it but I couldn't, wouldn't listen, wouldn't leave me alone."

"It's gone now baby, it's gone." Buffy soothed, stroking Faith's hair softly.

Faith pulled back and looked at Buffy fearfully, "Don't let it get me again, please, please, said it needs me, don't let it come back." she pleaded.

Buffy gently cupped Faith's head in her hands and looked into her eyes, she could see the madness lurking deep inside her and knew that what the Entity had forced her to do had broken her. "I won't let it get you I promise, you're safe now." she said tenderly kissing her lips, before resting her head against Faith's. "You're safe." she whispered.

Neither of them heard the sound of guns cocking until it was too late. Looking up Buffy realised with dread that a group of soldiers stood blocking the entrance to the alley, hearing a scuffle above her she looked up and saw that there where soldiers positioned on the roof, and all of them had guns which where pointing straight at her and Faith.

**Tbc.**

**A/N: Sorry for cutting it short but I can feel writers block coming so I decided to end the chapter there and submit it, the next chapter will continue straight on from this one though.**

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	7. Chapter 7 part two

**Author's note: Hi thanks for the reviews, sorry for the delay in updating but writers block is beginning to set in. Please let me know what you think of the chapter, cause I think it's a bit poo, but it's the best ma brain could do under the circumstances lol. Sorry for any mistakes, they're unintentional.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 7 (Part two)**

Buffy's first thought was council, however when she heard the men speak she realised that they where American, which either meant they where military or from some secret government organisation.

"Slayer raise your hands above your head and step away from the Lycan!" A voice ordered from behind her, she could hear the soldiers approaching from behind her and knew that if she and Faith where to get out of here alive she would have to wait for the right opportunity to make her move.

Glancing at Faith, she could see that she was becoming increasingly agitated, as she eyed the men warily and could hear her mumbling anxiously under her breath as she began rocking back and forth in agitation.

Buffy gently grasped Faith's face in her hands, forcing her to pay attention. "Baby I need you to stay calm for me okay, I won't let them take you." she whispered quietly, so that only Faith could hear her.

"Slayer we won't ask you again!" The soldier shouted impatiently.

Buffy gave Faith a small smile of reassurance before slowly raising her hands and placing them behind her head. She slowly stood up and moved away from Faith, turning to face the soldiers behind her. "Now begin walking slowly towards us." He ordered, Buffy did as he said and began making her way towards them. As she neared them she realised that they paid little attention to her, instead their guns where aimed at the prone form of her girlfriend, leaving Buffy able to make a quick attack before they realised that she was the main threat.

She forced herself to remain calm as one of the soldiers grabbed her and pushed her behind them. "Thank you for your cooperation slayer but we can handle it from here, if you know what's good for you you'll stay put while we restrain the hostile." The soldier said his tone condescending. Buffy smiled coldly, deciding to play along for the moment.

She watched patiently as the soldiers advanced towards her girlfriend, her heartbreaking as she heard Faith whimpering in fear, she fought down her instincts that where screaming at her to rush in and protect Faith. "Just a little longer, baby." she whispered, Faith looked over at her anxiously her whimpers dying down as she acknowledged that she'd heard Buffy.

One of the men on the ground motioned towards the soldiers on the roof who began climbing down the fire escape, once all the soldiers where in the alley they all cautiously approached Faith. Buffy saw one of the men aim a net launcher at Faith and knew that now was the time to attack while they where all distracted.

Slowly approaching the group she came to a stop just behind two soldiers near the back of the group, before they could turn to acknowledge her presence she reached her hands out and smacked their heads together, before dropping them to the ground unconscious. Moving quickly she managed to take out another two soldiers before the rest of the group where alerted to her presence.

"Restrain the slayer, we can't have her jeopardizing the mission! We'll take the wolf." The leader of the group ordered, Faith yelped as he fired the net gun, causing her to fall the ground as she became entangled in the nets.

Enraged Buffy grabbed the soldier nearest her, just as he fired his gun she knocked his arm away, sending the blast into the man coming up behind her. She realised that the guns appeared to be some sort of blasters, firing bursts of electricity instead of bullets. Whoever these people where they obviously intended on capturing Faith alive. Ripping the blaster from the soldiers grasped she smacked him across the face with the butt, knocking him out cold. Throwing her head back she heard and felt the satisfying crunch as it connected with the nose of the soldier that was creeping up behind her, she followed through with a back kick to his stomach causing him to double over winded, she brought the butt of the gun down on the back of his head not waiting to see him fall as another two soldiers quickly took his place.

She dropped into a roll as the soldiers fired their blasters at her, coming up beside the men she did a swift roundhouse kick across their faces, sending them spinning across the alley, sending a quick glance in Faith's direction she could see a soldier advancing towards her as she struggled to break free of the nets. Raising the blaster Buffy fired a shot towards the soldier, who flew back several feet before coming to land on the ground where he lay twitching. Seeing someone moving out of the corner of her eye she spun to face them when she felt a sharp pain in her chest and her world went dark.

**Apartment complex - Downtown Sunnydale **

On entering her apartment, Olivia wasn't surprised to see that the rest of her brethren had returned before her. "I trust you where all successful?" she asked, addressing the small group of men and woman gathered there. One of the woman nodded and pointed at the coffee table in the middle of the room, where a canvas bag lay half open. Pulling back the flap Olivia was greeted with the smell of blood, "How many?" she asked curiously.

"Five." The woman replied, "We managed to secure a kill each."

"All within the designated areas?" Olivia asked, when she saw them all nod in affirmation she couldn't help but smile as she realised that everything was going to plan. Reaching into the bag round her waist she removed two fist sized balls of cloth that were saturated with blood, "I managed to get the other two which means we have enough for the ritual." she said happily, placing the bundles on the table next to the bag.

"But what bout the slayer?" One of the men asked in surprise.

"We don't have to worry about the slayer, she's too busy chasing after her girlfriend to notice us, besides the murders can be pinned on the Garou who, by my calculations, should be a gibbering wreck by now, leaving us free to do as we wish."

"What about the slayers watcher? He's hardly going to turn a blind eye while we carry out our ritual." The woman asked anxiously.

Olivia smiled evilly, "Don't worry about the Watcher, I can handle him. By the time the slayer and her friends realise what is going on we'll have summoned Lucian and they will be unable to stop us." she said.

A small breeze caught the flap of the bag, blowing it open flashing the grizzly contents for a brief second, long enough for anyone to see that the bag was full of human hearts.

**Alley - Main Street, Sunnydale**

The haze in Faith's mind was quickly replaced with rage as she saw Buffy fall to the ground unconscious, looking up she saw the reason as one of the soldiers lowered his blaster and began advancing towards her mates prone form.

A bestial growl rumbled from deep inside her chest echoing round the alley, she felt a ball of rage building in her stomach as she began changing into her wolf form, the net ripped like paper no longer able to contain her frame as she grew to twice her size. Easily shrugging off the remains of the net she threw herself at the soldier that had shot her mate. Grabbing him by the throat she threw him towards the two men that where sneaking up behind her, causing them to fall like skittles.

Standing protectively over her mate, she roared furiously as one of the soldiers stabbed a dart into her arm, quickly pulling it out she stabbed it deep into the mans neck, before knocking him across the alley.

Hearing a soldier fast approaching behind her she spun and slashed out with her claws, catching him across the chest, the man screamed in pain as blood streamed from his wounds, grabbing a hold of his shirt she threw him over her head and into the street outside. Looking round her she saw that there was only one soldier left, who had his blaster trained on her, taking a menacing step towards him, she crouched down on all fours and roared ferociously causing the soldier to take step back and fall over the leg of one his fallen comrades.

As soon as the soldier hit the ground Faith leapt towards him and knocked the blaster from his hand before pinning him to the ground. Breathing in deeply she could almost taste the soldiers fear, and she found the smell intoxicating. She lightly ran her claws down the mans cheek drawing blood, bending down she licked the blood from his face, the rush that filled her caused her to growl in pleasure, she felt the man go limp beneath her as he fainted, lowering her head she was about to sink her teeth into the mans throat when she heard a noise behind her.

"Expelliarum!" Tara commanded, a bolt of white light shot from her hand and hit Faith in the side, sending her flying back off of the terrified soldier and across the alley. Tara stepped toward Faith and quickly chanting a binding spell before she could recover her senses and attack them.

Giles and Willow appeared from behind her, their eyes staring in shock at the devastation before them. "Dear Lord!" Giles exclaimed, his eyes falling on the bloody remains of the corpse in the corner.

"Did Faith do all of this?" Willow asked in disbelief, staring at the bodies of the unconscious soldiers in horror.

"No." A voice mumbled from the back of the alley, "I kicked ass too." Buffy groaned making her presence known as the effects of the blaster began to wear off.

"Buffy are you okay what happened?" Willow asked anxiously, quickly making her way to her best friends side.

Buffy blinked her eyes open and raised her head slightly, "Got knocked out by a blaster thingy." she said groggily. "This is definitely going on my list of things that suck." she groaned, raising her hands to her head as if it would help stave of the headache she could feel building behind her eyes. She sat up quickly startling Willow as she remembered the reason why she'd been shot at. "Where's Faith!" she asked anxiously, fearing the worst as she looked round the alley and saw no immediate sign of her girlfriend.

"She's over here Buffy." Giles called, as he and Tara stepped aside to reveal Faith, who appeared to be struggling against as unseen force. "We've performed a binding spell to restrain her." he explained as he saw the confusion evident on his slayer's face.

"Help me over to her." Buffy ordered looking at Willow pleadingly. Willow was about to object when she saw the look in Buffy's eyes. She carefully helped her friend to her feet and supported her weight as they slowly limped over to where Faith was restrained.

As soon as Faith saw that her mate was safe her wolf retreated, causing her to change back into her human form.

Tara and Giles moved away from Faith as Buffy neared them. "I'll go and bring the car round, neither of you are in a condition to walk and we'll need to get out of here before any authorities arrive." he said softly, before quietly leaving the alley.

Tara motioned for Willow to move away, sensing that the two of them needed some privacy. Willow hesitated for a second before deciding that Buffy wasn't in any immediate danger, trusting Tara's binding spell to hold long enough for Giles to get back.

Buffy eased herself to the ground, sitting next to Faith, "Hey." she said softly, gently brushing a stray piece of hair away from Faith's eyes. "You okay?" she asked in concern. Faith turned pain filled eyes towards her and shook her head.

"Want to go home." Faith whispered sadly.

Buffy smiled sadly and kissed her cheek, "I know baby, me too." she said quietly.

Tara felt a wave of guilt wash over her as she watched the two lovers interact. She'd glimpsed into Faith's eyes after she'd changed back into her human form, and had been shocked at the change in her friend. The Entity had stripped her off her sanity, leaving her emotionally violated and with all the innocence of a child. If she hadn't suggested that they entered Faith's dreamscape then the Entity wouldn't have been able to follow them through, it wouldn't have taken over Faith and destroyed her mind, it wouldn't have allowed her to kill innocent people. People where dead, her friend driven mad and it was all her fault.

**Tbc.**

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	8. Chapter 8

**Authors note: Wow thank you for all the reviews, hope this chapter does everybody justice. Enjoy :-) Time frame wise it's still the same day as the previous four or five chapters, just encase anybody wanted to know.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 8**

The car journey to Buffy's house was made in silence, no words could describe the gambit of emotions playing through everybody's mind, the only person that could feel each and every one was Tara. The main emotions that she could pick up on where fear and uncertainty and she realised that they where directed solely at Faith. She could see Giles watching Faith warily from the rear view mirror whenever they stopped at a red light, while Willow sat tensed in the passenger seat, obviously uncomfortable with Faith sitting behind her. Which was understandable considering what they had seen in the alley, the body of the man had been attacked and devoured with a ferocious brutality that had shocked even herself. But she found it difficult to associate the Faith that had caused the carnage in the alley, with the Faith that was sitting beside her now. Her friend sat staring into space, occasionally her lips moved wordlessly, as if in silent conversation with herself, her thumb idly tracing circles on the back of Buffy's hand which was clasped tightly in her own. Tara noticed that Faith held her left arm protectively against her chest, it was then she noticed the bloody strip of cloth wrapped tightly round her forearm and realised that she'd been wounded in the fight back at the alley. However when she saw the burns on Faith's hand she realised that they could only have been caused by silver, looking at Buffy she could see and feel the guilt that was surrounding her and realised that Buffy had caused the wounds.

"NO!" Faith shouted suddenly, shaking her head in agitation, everyone in the car jumped at her sudden outburst. "No, no, no, no, no, bad, bad, bad." she mumbled.

Giles looked questioningly at Buffy, silently asking whether he should stop the car, Buffy shook her head, "Keep going, it'll be okay." she said reassuringly. Cupping Faith's cheek she gently turned her head so that she could look into her eyes. "Faith baby, we're nearly home, but I need you to stay strong for me." she said keeping her voice calm and steady.

"He needs blood." Faith said fearfully. "But they won't let him out, won't let him." Her words fading to a whisper.

"Who Faith? Who needs blood?" Buffy asked gently.

"The dark man, h-he's bad, needs blood to grow." she replied, "Won't stop, needs to hunt."

Tara looked thoughtful, "Is the dark man talking to you now Faith?" she asked curiously.

"Killed my dad, dads dead, dads dead, dads dead." she mumbled hoarsely, not hearing Tara's question as the memories from her past replayed in her mind.

Once again the car descended into silence as nobody knew what to say, there where no words of comfort or reassurance that could help Faith or Buffy. They could only hope that they would find some answers when they got home.

**Initiative Compound**

When the group of commandos returned to the compound they where greeted by Professor Walsh who was less than happy to see that they had returned empty handed. She looked at the bruised and bloody men in disdain.

"Sixteen elite highly skilled commandos left this base little over an hour ago on a simple retrieval exercise." she said, slowly pacing up and down surveying the soldiers. "And what returns in their place? Sixteen pathetic little boys who look as if they have been dragged through a hedge backwards!" she spat, spinning to face the group who refused to meet her gaze. "Agent Finn I want to speak with you in my office, the rest of you are dismissed!" she ordered before storming off down the corridor, not waiting for Riley to follow her.

Riley took a deep breath and tried to compose himself, not wanting to give professor Walsh the satisfaction of seeing him squirm. Dragging himself down the corridor he stopped outside the door to her office and paused, forcing himself to stand up straight before knocking. He heard professor Walsh shout for him to enter and he cautiously opened the door. When he entered the office he saw her sitting at the desk with her back to him.

"Sit down Agent Finn." she ordered, sighing warily before turning in her chair to face him. "I want to know what the hell happened out there."

"We had cornered the hostile in an alleyway off Main street, and found the Slayer already there. The slayer cooperated with us at first, and the hostile was docile enough for us to assume that it would be an easy capture. But as soon as we had restrained the hostile, the slayer began attacking my men. She managed to take out ten men before we subdued her. However as soon as the hostile saw the slayer go down it became violent and broke free of its restraints, and succeeded in taking out the rest of my men." he explained, "There was nothing we could have done, they where both too fast for us." he said, his tone somewhat defensive.

Professor Walsh sighed in frustration, and ran a hand through her hair, "This hostile is an important asset to the OMEGA project, it is imperative that we capture it as soon as possible. We cannot risk anymore incidents like this agent Finn. The public cannot know that we exist, we are lucky that this farce isn't all over the news." she said.

"The mission wasn't a complete loss. We did manage to inject the hostile with a tracking device ma'am." Riley said.

Professor Walsh smiled for the first time that night, "It would seem that you aren't a complete failure after all agent Finn!" she exclaimed. "This means that it will lead us straight to the slayer. We will need to be more subtle with our approach this time, we don't want the slayer mopping the floor with us again." she said.

"May I make a suggestion ma'am?" he asked, professor Walsh nodded. " We could set up surveillance round the slayers house, that way we can monitor her movements, she's bound to leave the hostile unprotected long enough for us to make our move." he suggested. "That way my men receive minimum exposure." Professor Walsh nodded thoughtfully,

"I think that's the safest way to proceed. We want to keep the slayer out of this as much as possible, she is after all fighting on the same side as us, however if she where to become a threat we won't hesitate to eliminate her." she said coldly, "Slayers are expendable after all, if you kill one there's always another to take its place."

Riley nodded, "When do you want us to begin?" he asked.

"Lets give things a few days to calm down shall we, if they think that they've seen the last of us they'll let their guard down, making them prone to mistakes. The slayer will have to carry out her sacred duty, and as we know Sunnydale is teeming with demons and vampires, which means that she can't stay housebound forever." Professor Walsh explained. "You'd better inform the rest of the compound that patrols will be cancelled for the next few days, that should be long enough for the demon population to become somewhat of a problem for our slayer." she said, "Now leave me, I have work to do."

Riley stood and made his way from her office. He walked down the corridor to the mess hall to tell the rest of his men the bad news, no patrol meant that they would be stuck on desk duty for the next couple of days, which was never a good thing.

**Buffy's House**

Tara, Willow and Giles where sat round Buffy's dining room table, while Buffy tended to Faith in the living room. They'd decided to give the two of them some space while they tried to work out where to go from here.

"What are we going to do?" Willow asked looking desperately at Giles and Tara.

Giles sighed and removed his glasses, rubbing tiredly at the bridge of his nose. "I honestly don't know." he said "We know nothing about this Entity that possessed Faith, it appears to have gone for the moment however there's no telling if or when it could come back."

"It couldn't just disappear. So where did it go?" Willow said.

"The dreamscape." Tara said, earning confused looks from Giles and Willow. "When I performed the s-spell it opened a g-gateway between the dreamscape and our reality. W-when the Entity took over Faith it allowed it to c-come through to our reality. B-because I didn't get to c-close the spell the link between the dreamscape and our realm is s-still open." she explained. "It's my fault this happened."

"Tara-" Willow started.

"No, Willow, it was my idea to go into the dreamscape, and it w-was me that cast the spell." she said quietly. "It's my fault Faith's gone mad and it's m-my fault that m-man died."

Giles shook his head emphatically, "Tara it's not your fault." he said holding his hand up to stop the protests that he knew where coming. "This Entity had been plaguing Faith for months, it could have manifested itself at any time."

"A-all I did was s-speed up the process." she said bitterly, getting up from the table she left the room. Willow stood and made to follow her but Giles stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Let her go." he said softly. "She needs time to come to terms with her part in all of this. She'll take on board what we've said and will realise that she's not to blame." he said reassuringly.

Willow nodded reluctantly and sat back down at the table. "I know you're right, as usual, but I can't help but worry." she said smiling sadly, "It's what I do best."

**Meanwhile - Living room**

Buffy gently peeled the cloth away from the wound on Faith's arm, wincing as she uncovered the damage that she herself had inflicted. The wound had stopped bleeding as Faith's accelerated healing had begun doing it's job, however it would still require stitches as the gash passed straight through her forearm. Picking up a cloth from the basin beside her she began to carefully clean the blood and dirt away from the wound, glancing up at Faith she saw that she was staring off into space, not showing any signs of emotion.

Buffy sighed sadly, fighting back tears, she had to stay strong for Faith, she needed to be strong to protect her from the commandos and anyone else that wanted to hurt her. But no matter how strong Buffy was as the slayer, even she couldn't protect Faith from the demons that where effecting her mind. She had never felt so helpless in her life, her girlfriend was losing her sanity right before her eyes and there was nothing she could do to prevent it.

**TBC **

**A/N: Sorry it's another short chapter, I didn't want to end it there but my brain ran out of things to write.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors note: Hi sorry for the delay in updating but I had that gastroenteritis bug, which is one of the job hazards when you're a nurse, and I had an assignment to submit for my degree. Add to that some frantic Christmas shopping and you have one hellish month. Anyway I finally managed to write another chapter, the next chapter will hopefully be following not long after if all goes according to plan :-) Thanks for all the reviews and please keep them coming they mean a lot to a poor wee buddy like me lol.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 9**

**Buffy's house - Late Evening**

Tara stood in the living room doorway, silently watching as Buffy tended to Faith. Not wanting to interrupt the tender scene she turned and headed for the front door, however before she could leave she heard Buffy calling her name. Taking a deep breath she gathered herself together before going to face her friend.

When she entered the living room, Buffy gave her a small smile and gestured for her to sit next to her and Faith on the sofa. "S-sorry I didn't know if you wanted t-to be left alone." Tara said apologetically.

"It's okay, actually I wanted to talk to you." Buffy said softly. She saw the look of guilt flash across Tara's face and smiled sadly. "You need to stop blaming yourself Tara, it's not your fault."

Tara looked at her in surprise, of all the things she had expected Buffy to say this wasn't one of them, "W-what, but I c-cast the spell, and I-I didn't close the portal." she stammered. "I let that t-thing follow us b-back."

Buffy sighed and looked at Faith, who sat oblivious to what was going on around her. "She didn't want to go through with the spell at first." she said, gently brushing a stray piece of hair from Faith's eyes. "It was me that talked her into it. So if you're guilty then so am I."

"B-but I - " Tara began to protest but Buffy silenced her with a look.

"You didn't know that this would happen none of us did, we decided to do the spell because we thought it was the best thing for Faith." she said gently. "All you're guilty of is caring for Faith, you didn't set out to do this. I don't blame you and I know that Faith doesn't either."

Tara nodded reluctantly knowing that what Buffy had said was true, however it didn't help ease her guilt. "I know you're r-right, but I won't feel better until this is all over and Faith's back to normal." she said softly, glancing over at her friend.

"Me too." Buffy said quietly.

Tara gave Buffy a small smile before standing up from the sofa, "I'd better go home a-and see if I can find anything that can help Faith, I'm not doing any good sitting here m-moping."

Buffy nodded, "Will you be okay getting home? I can get Giles to take you home in the car -"

"No, I'll be fine. The fresh air will help c-clear my head, besides I can take care of myself." Tara replied. "And I can run fast when I n-need to."

"Okay." Buffy looked at Faith before looking back at Tara, "You're a good person Tara." she said quietly.

Tara smiled gently and pulled Buffy into a hug, "If you need a-anything don't hesitate to call me." she said. She felt Buffy nod in reply and pulled back from the hug. Turning to Faith she saw that she was still staring off into space, reaching her hand out she placed it on Faith's shoulder and squeezed gently, "I'll see you later sweetie okay." she said gently. She sighed sadly at Faith's lack of response and quietly left the room, not hearing Faith as she whispered goodbye.

**Initiative Compound**

Riley jolted from his sleep as the phone next to his bed screeched in his ear. Groaning he threw his arm out and grabbed it from the cradle. "Hello." he mumbled groggily. He was surprised when he was greeted by Wesley.

"Agent Finn, Professor Walsh and myself would like to see you immediately." Wesley said. Riley sat up on the side of his bed, immediately coming to attention. "The tracking device you planted appears to be working efficiently, however the reason for the meeting is far more important." he explained. "A car will arrive to collect you shortly, please ensure that you are ready when it arrives. We will explain everything when you get here."

Before Riley could reply the phone went dead as Wesley hung up, sighing tiredly he dragged himself from his bed and began to get changed. It was at times like these he wondered why he didn't have a normal job.

**Meanwhile - Buffy's house**

Giles and Willow looked up as they heard someone padding down the stairs, not long after an exhausted Buffy appeared in the doorway. Willow pulled the chair out next to her and motioned for Buffy to come and sit beside her.

"How is she?" Willow asked in concern.

"She's sleeping upstairs." Buffy sighed tiredly and ran a shaky hand through her hair. "Have you guys found anything?" she asked hopefully.

"From the little information we have, we believe that the Entity has been present in her psyche since her fathers death, however it didn't make itself known until the incident with the slave disc, which was several months ago." Giles explained.

Buffy looked at him in confusion, "If this _thing_ has been in her head for years how come it hasn't taken her over before?" she asked.

"As you recall when Faith was under the control of the slave disc she was forced to kill innocent people. This awakened the Entity which feeds purely on death and destruction. If she hadn't taken human lives it would have remained dormant." he said. "However by entering the dreamscape it allowed the Entity to posses her and follow her back through to our reality."

"What about getting rid of this thing? How do we do that?" Buffy asked impatiently.

"Buffy you have to realise that we have very little information to work with." Giles said. "With our ties to the council severed and everyone's reluctance to involve Faith's clan we've reached a dead end."

"I don't buy that." Buffy said firmly, "I mean there's got to be someone that knows how to get rid of this thing, there has to be a spell or something!" she exclaimed, looking at Giles and Willow pleadingly.

"At the moment we have nothing." Giles said quietly. "And until we find a lead as to how to vanquish this Entity we have to discuss what to do with Faith."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked flatly.

Giles sighed and removed his glasses, trying to figure out how to broach the subject gently. "Given her current condition I don't think its wise to have her roaming round the house unattended." he said softly.

Buffy stared at Giles incredulously as she realised where this was going. "I don't believe this!" she exclaimed angrily. "You can't expect me to chain her up, she's not an animal!"

"I'm not saying for one minute that she is. But you have to see it from our point of view. She killed a man tonight and injured God knows how many." he quickly raised his hand as he saw Buffy about to interrupt. "I know Faith is docile at the moment but there is no telling if or when the Entity will come back."

"If it comes back I can handle it." Buffy said firmly.

Giles looked at the bruises that had formed round her neck from where Faith had grabbed her. "Can you?" he asked knowingly, raising his eyes to meet her gaze he saw her flinch and look away. "This Entity could posses Faith when your guard is down, when you're sleeping. Are you willing to risk your own safety and that of your mothers?" he reasoned.

Buffy sighed sadly and looked down at her hands that where resting in her lap. Willow placed a comforting hand on Buffy's arm. "Giles is right Buffy." she said softly. "And you know that Faith wouldn't want to be responsible for any more people getting hurt. She would want you to do this." Willow said.

"I know, but it doesn't mean its right." she said sadly. "She only went to sleep because I left the light on for her, she's terrified that this things going to come back and there's nothing I can do to reassure her. She's like a child." she said softly. "I can't chain her up, she wouldn't understand."

Giles looked at her in understanding, "The last thing we want is to cause her any unnecessary stress, there are other ways to restrain her than using chains." he said reassuringly. "Mistletoe can be used to repel Lycanthropes. If we place it in the doorway of a room she will be unable to enter or leave the room. It works in the same way that vampires need an invitation to enter someone's home." he explained. "It acts as an invisible barrier of sorts."

Buffy rubbed her hands tiredly over her eyes before looking back at Giles. "Okay, but I want Faith to stay here with me." she said firmly.

"Buffy-" Giles started.

"No, I'm not having her locked up in the mansion, not while those Commandos are out there. You didn't see them Giles, they where determined to capture her and they knew who I was." Buffy stated. "I'm not letting Faith out of my sight, I want her here where I can protect her."

"Okay, I understand. But you can't leave Faith alone in the house with your mother when you patrol, it wouldn't be safe." Giles said.

"I know which is why I'm not going to patrol." she replied. "Faith needs me and I'm not leaving her alone, not when she's like this." she said her tone holding no room for argument.

"You can't shirk your responsibilities as the slayer Buffy, you will need to patrol at some point otherwise you will put innocent people at risk." Giles said rationally.

"The person I love is at risk, which is higher on my list of priorities Giles. The slaying can wait, I'm sure the vamps won't miss me." she said sarcastically.

Willow saw that Giles was only seconds away from giving Buffy a lecture about the slayers duty, and decided to interrupt before it turned into an argument. "We can help with the patrol for the next couple of nights." she offered. "I mean we managed when Buffy was on vacation, a-and it's been quiet lately, it'll give Buffy time with Faith." she said smiling at Buffy, who looked at her gratefully.

"Are you sure Wills?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah we'll manage won't we Giles." Willow said, looking at Giles meaningfully.

Giles sighed. "Yes I don't see why not. But you will need to resume your duties eventually. I understand that this is hard for you but you have to realise that Faith could be like this for weeks, even months. We don't know if or when we'll be able to find a way to exorcise this Entity." he said. "We may have to go against Faith's wishes and inform her clan, they seem to be the only people with the knowledge we require." he said gravely.

"Faith's clan are our last resort. I don't want them involved unless they need to be." Buffy said firmly. "I'll phone Drake in the morning, he has a right to know what's going on and we can trust him. Besides he's our closest link to her clan and he might know something." she said standing up from the table. "I'd better go and check on Faith, if you guys want you can stay the night." she offered. "My mom won't be back till tomorrow so there's enough room."

"I'll stay Buffy, just encase you need anything." Willow said smiling gently.

Giles nodded. "I agree." he said. "However I think I'll go home and collect some books first, they may contain something relating to our predicament."

"Okay." Buffy said, "Willow you can stay in the spare room, the beds made up. And Giles you can take my moms room." she said.

"It's quite alright, I'll just take the sofa, I'm not planning on sleeping." he said. "You go and get some sleep, I'll wake you if I find anything." he said gently.

Buff nodded and smiled sadly at the pair of them before silently making her way upstairs. Willow and Giles watched her go, neither of them saying anything, both equally exhausted by the days events, and both hoping that they would find some answers in the light of day.

**TBC**

**A/N: There you have it, my minds back on track now and I know where I'm going with this fic. For a wee while I was considering stopping it cause I really didn't know what to write. The next chapter should hopefully be posted in the next couple of weeks.**

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	10. Chapter 10

**Authors note: Hello everyone happy new year! Hope you all had a good Christmas and that the hangovers weren't too bad, I know mine was lol. Thanks for the reviews, and I hope you like this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything. **

**Chapter 10**

**Early Morning - Sunnydale**

Riley cautiously entered the building before him. He had no idea where he was, the car that Professor Walsh had sent to collect him had dropped him off here and the driver had given him a slip of paper with what he assumed was a room number. Looking round the lobby of what appeared to be an office building he saw nothing but a set of elevator doors before him.

The sound of his footsteps echoed through the lobby as he made his way towards the elevator. He was about to reach out and press the button when the doors opened before him, he glanced at them warily before stepping inside. The doors quickly closed behind him and the elevator began to move upwards, he realised that he had no idea what floor he had to stop at, however when he looked round the elevator he saw that there was no control panel, realising that he had no control over the situation he resigned himself to waiting to see where the elevator dropped him.

Needless to say when the elevator doors finally opened he wasn't surprised to see that he was on the correct floor. The corridor before him looked like something from a science fiction movie, with stark white walls and what he assumed where reinforced steel doors. Feeling adequately out of place in his baggy tracksuit, he looked at the room number on the slip of paper and began to search the corridor, inwardly cursing at himself for not bringing any weapons for protection.

**Buffy's house - Morning**

When Willow came downstairs she was greeted by the smell of coffee. Walking through to the kitchen she was surprised to see Buffy sitting at the breakfast bar, cradling a mug in her hands. "Morning." Willow greeted, causing Buffy to leap out of her skin.

"Oh hey, morning. There's plenty of coffee if you want some." Buffy said, gesturing to the pot on the work top.

"Where's Giles?" Willow asked, finally noticing the watchers absence.

"He's upstairs decorating the house with mistletoe." Buffy said offhandedly.

Willow nodded to herself as she poured a cup of coffee, before sitting down opposite her best friend. "How's Faith?" she asked in concern.

Buffy sighed, "She had a pretty restless night, I finally managed to calm her down about three, hopefully she's still sleeping." she said quietly.

"What about you?" Willow asked, looking at her friend in concern.

"I'm okay." Buffy said smiling sadly, before looking down at the mug in her hands. A few minutes of silence passed as Willow patiently waited for her friend to open up to her. "Actually I'm not okay." she said quietly, "Everything's wrong." she whispered. "I'm sitting down here doing nothing while that _thing_ is messing with my girlfriends head. I mean I'm the slayer, it's my duty to protect people but what good is that when I can't protect the people I love."

Willow clasped Buffy's hand in hers and squeezed gently. "From where I'm standing you've done a good job protecting me and Xander the past four years. And you stopped those commandos from taking Faith." she said firmly. "We all know the risks of fighting at your side but we do it anyway because we love you and we want to protect you. I know it seems like you have to be super gal all the time but remember that you're not alone. You've go us to help ease the burden." Willow said. "And we're pretty hard to forget, what with the screaming and panicking whenever we're in danger, which is nearly a regular occurrence."

Buffy smiled. "You guys are the best, I don't know what I'd do without you." she said seriously.

"I know for a fact that we would be dead without you, as harsh and morbid as it sounds it's the truth." Willow said.

"It was a bit harsh." Buffy said in agreement.

"But at the same time true." Willow said, she glanced up at the clock and drained the rest of her coffee. "I think I'll go and see how Tara's doing, she took what happened to Faith pretty bad and I wanna make sure she's okay." Willow said anxiously.

Buffy smiled gently "Tell her hey from me." she said pulling Willow into a hug, "Thanks for being here for me, it means a lot."

"Hey that's what best friends are for, it comes with the territory." Willow said, pulling back from the hug she looked at Buffy seriously. "Remember to look after yourself as well Buffy, Faith wouldn't want you running yourself into the ground and putting your life on hold because of what's happened."

Buffy nodded and looked down at the ground, "I know."

"Which is why I'm coming back later to help you pick your classes for college." Willow said, resolve face firmly in place as Buffy looked at her in shock.

"Oh God I totally forgot!" She exclaimed. "My mom will kill me."

"No she won't not with me on the case." Willow said happily. "I'll bring everything round for you Buffy, don't worry."

"You're a life saver Wills." Buffy said in relief, following Willow through to the front door.

"So I've been told." Willow said, smirking gently. "Well I'd better go, I'll see you guys later." she said, letting herself out. Buffy watched her go and waved goodbye before closing the door behind her.

She was halfway up the stairs when she met Giles coming down them. "Where are you going?" He asked softly.

"I need to check on Faith." Buffy said attempting to walk past him. He stopped her in her tracks with a hand on her shoulder.

"She's still sleeping." he said gently. "She'll be fine for the moment, meanwhile you need to rest. You've been running yourself ragged, it's not healthy Buffy. Come downstairs and I'll make you something to eat."

Buffy sighed and grudgingly turned round, heading back down the stairs. She walked through to the living room and sat on the sofa, while Giles headed through to the kitchen. She absentmindedly listened to him clattering about, her thoughts preoccupied with Faith and what the future held for the both of them. She knew without a doubt that if Faith couldn't be cured she would willingly give up everything to care for her. There was no way on earth she would abandon Faith, and she wouldn't trust anyone else to care for her. She was trying to remain positive, but the longer they went on without a cure, the more she felt her hope beginning to fade.

She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Giles standing next to her, he smiled gently, and handed her a plate of pancakes. She looked at him thankfully and began to pick at the food, her appetite had left her however she forced herself to eat, as she needed to stay strong for Faith.

**Building - Business District Sunnydale**

The door to room 214 stared at him ominously, almost daring him to knock. Clearing is throat he crammed the piece of paper in his pocket before reaching his hand out to rap on the steel door before him. He fidgeted nervously as he heard someone unlocking the door from the other side.

"Ah, Agent Finn glad to see you've arrived in one piece come in." Wesley greeted, opening the door he stepped back to let Riley enter. When Riley stepped into the room he was surprised to see that it was a large open plan apartment, warmly decorated in complete contrast to the almost clinical feel of the lobby and corridor outside. Wesley gestured for him to sit down on the sofa. "Would you like anything to drink?" he asked.

"Uh, no, no thank you." Riley replied, still trying to decide if he was dreaming or not.

Wesley poured himself a large scotch before sitting opposite him on the sofa. "Now I suppose you're wondering why we've called you here at this late hour." he asked sipping from the glass in his hand. "Professor Walsh and myself have a proposition for you." he said.

Riley looked at him in confusion. "A proposition?" he asked.

"How would you like to become something that most people can only dream of?" Professor Walsh asked, appearing from behind Riley. "Despite the fact that the mission was almost a complete failure it was your quick thinking which managed to salvage it. We believe that you have what it takes to progress to the next level."

"I don't understand." Riley said, looking between Wesley and Professor Walsh in confusion.

"We want to initiate you into the OMEGA project and make you into a super being, strong enough to match the slayer." Wesley said simply.

"Why? Why me?" Riley asked curiously.

"You've already proved yourself with your loyalty and initiative. I have a group of super soldiers standing by, they merely await a leader. I want that leader to be you."

Riley looked thoughtful, he realised that he was being offered everything that he had ever dreamed of. He looked back up at professor Walsh and smiled. "Okay, what do I have to do?"

**Meanwhile - Buffy's house**

Buffy picked up the phone and dialled the contact number that Drake had given them when he left. Walking over to the sofa she sat down opposite Giles and waited for the person on the other end to answer. // Hello, Lehane investigations, how can we help you?// A voice answered cheerfully.

"Cordelia?" Buffy asked hesitantly, knocked off by the cheerful greeting.

//Buffy is that you? How've you been?"// Cordelia asked.

"Not so good." Buffy said quietly, "I-Is Drake there?" she asked.

//Uh sure, hold on I'll just get him.// Cordelia said the concern evident in her voice. Buffy could hear rustling in the background before she heard Cordelia talking to Drake. There was a fumbling sound as the phone was handed over, and she was greeted by Drake.

//Hi Buffy what can I do for ya?// Drake asked in concern.

Buffy sighed. "It's Faith she's, she's been taken over by the same thing that possessed your dad." she said, summing up everything that had happened in one brief sentence, knowing that Drake would understand and hoping that he would have the answers.

// Oh God// Drake whispered// How did it happen// He listened quietly as Buffy explained about the dreams and Faith's bloodlust, and how the Entity had followed them back from the dreamscape. // When I last saw her she'd told me about the dreams, she'd been worried that she was going to turn out like dad but I thought it was just guilt. // He said quietly. // Man I should've known what was happening!//

"You didn't know, none of us did." Buffy said calmly.

//How bad is she?// He asked anxiously.

Buffy sighed sadly "Bad."

// I don't want this thing to destroy what's left of my family, it did a good enough job of that the first time round.// he said firmly.

"Neither do I." Buffy said softly.

// Listen if me and Cordy leave soon we should be down there for tonight, I'll see if I can find anything that might help, Marcus gave me some scrolls to restore, they might have something about this bastard in them.// He said.

"Anything you can find would be great cause we've got no leads at all." she said.

// I'll see what I can do.// He said. //You take care Buffy and I'll see you soon.//

"Okay and Drake, thank you." She said sincerely.

//No problem, Buffy.//

They said their goodbyes and Buffy hung up, sitting the phone on the coffee table before turning to face Giles who was waiting expectantly. "Drake and Cordelia are on their way. He's going to see if he can find anything that'll help." she said.

"Thank God." Giles exclaimed. "Any information they have is better than nothing. Even the smallest lead could be enough to get the ball rolling."

Buffy looked at him thoughtfully. "I hope you're right." she said.

A sudden crash from above them startled them both, causing Buffy to jump up from the sofa and run for the stairs, with Giles following closely behind.

Buffy got to the top of the stairs in time to see Mr Gordo fly across the landing and bounce off the wall. Hearing banging noises she quickly hurried towards her room, and saw Faith sitting in the doorway to her room, seemingly banging her hands on thin air. For a split second Buffy thought she was seeing things until she remembered the mistletoe above her doorway.

"I can't get out, it won't let me leave." Faith cried franticly banging her hands on the invisible barrier between the doorway.

"Hey, ssh it's okay." Buffy said, walking into the room and gathering Faith into her arms. "It's okay." Buffy looked up and saw Giles standing awkwardly in the doorway, she smiled at him reassuringly and gestured for him to leave them, before turning her attention to her girlfriend.

"I-It doesn't like me, won't let me out." Faith whispered, pointing at the door. "I made it mad."

Buffy smiled sadly, "Baby the door isn't mad at you, it's protecting you from anything bad that wants to hurt you." she said soothingly.

"Hurt me?"

"Nothing bad can get you in here." Buffy said.

"B-but the bad man, he's in here." Faith whispered, tapping her head with her hand. "He won't get out, says your bad, h-he says you want to hurt me. That's why I can't leave." she said fearfully.

Buffy forced herself to remain calm, and gently cupped Faith's cheek in her palm. "Baby you know I would _never _hurt you." she said solemnly.

"Because you love me?" Faith asked seriously.

Buffy nodded, "Because I love you and I would do anything to make sure that nobody hurt you." she said caressing Faith's cheek.

Faith stared at Buffy intently and gently ran her hand through Buffy's hair, "Mine." she said softly.

"Yours." Buffy whispered sadly, her voice thick with tears.

"I won't let the bad man hurt my Buffy." Faith said seriously. "Cause I love you." Buffy put her hand over her mouth but she was too late to stop the sob from escaping. She tried to hold it together in front of Faith, however when she felt Faith's arms wrap round her she lost what little control she had on her emotions. Burying her head in Faith's shoulder she finally let out all the pain and guilt that had been building inside her, and allowed herself to break down in her lovers arms.

**TBC.**

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	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note: Hey this is just a short chapter the next one should hopefully be a big one. Thanks again to everyone that reviewed you guys are the best.**

**Disclaimer: I won nothing, Joss owns everything**

**Chapter 11**

**Tara's house - Morning**

Willow resisted the urge to ring the doorbell again, and settled for fidgeting nervously with the zip on her coat, whilst waiting for Tara to answer the door. Catching her reflection in the window, she once again curse herself for not going home and changing first. Her clothes where covered in mud, and God knows what else from yesterday, when they'd had to recapture Faith, and she looked like death warmed up due to the lack of sleep last night.

"Goddess I look like a tramp." Willow mumbled, trying to flatten her hair with her hand, but with no success. _Why do I care what she thinks? I mean we're just friends, it's not as if she'll think any less of me if I look a mess. I mean sure I care about her….a lot, buts that's cause she helped me get through the break up with Oz, right? _She thought, trying to rationalise her feelings. She was broken from her internal discussion when Tara finally opened the door.

"Willow, hi w-what are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

"I came to see if you where okay, you know after what happened last night." Willow said nervously.

"I-I'm fine." Tara said unconvincingly.

Willow studied her friend closely and saw that it was obvious that she hadn't slept at all and was still wearing the same clothes she had yesterday. "Do you mind if I come in? I have food." she said holding up a brown paper bag. Tara smiled gently and stepped aside silently inviting her in.

**Meanwhile Giles's House**

Giles let himself in and threw his keys on the table next to the door, before slipping his coat off and hanging it on the coat rack. Sighing he removed his glasses and tiredly rubbed his eyes as he trudged through to the kitchen and began to make himself some tea. He'd left Buffy's house safe in the knowledge that the mistletoe barriers where working, and he'd promised Buffy that he would come back later when Drake and Cordelia arrived. In the meantime there was nothing more that he could do and he respected Buffy's wishes for some privacy.

He turned to the fridge to get the milk when he heard a noise coming from his bedroom. Picking up a carving knife from the knife block, he quietly crept out of the kitchen and towards his room. Before he could reach for the door handle, his room door opened and he was greeted by a groggy Olivia who stood in the doorway wearing nothing more than one of his old shirts.

"Olivia!" Giles exclaimed in surprise, quickly lowering the knife in his hand.

"Hello Rupert." she said yawning tiredly, she walked past him and headed down the hall, not even mentioning the knife, or the fact that he was about to use it. He stared after her in shock before gathering his wits and following her into the kitchen.

"Uh, not that it isn't nice to see you, but what are you doing here?" he asked watching as she began making herself something to eat.

"Don't you remember?" she asked, glancing over at him. "We where supposed to go out to dinner last night, but s_omebody_ forgot to turn up." she said reproachfully, turning to hand him a mug of tea.

"Oh uh, yes, I'm sorry it slipped my mind." he said bashfully, which earned him a raised eyebrow from Olivia.

"Slipped your mind?" She repeated incredulously. "Rupert, you can't just forget a date!" she exclaimed. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose forcing herself to remain calm. "I'm just, I'm worried about you." she said looking at him intently.

"About me? Why?" he asked curiously.

She walked through into the living room and picked up the spell book lying on his coffee table. "Because of this." she said, holding the book out to him. "I thought you gave up dabbling in magic Rupert, especially after what happened with Ethan-"

"Olivia it's not what you think." he interrupted.

"I come here to see you and I find you gone and this place littered with spell books and crystals. What am I supposed to think." she snapped.

"It's complicated." Giles said quietly.

"Complicated, what too complicated for me to understand you mean." she exclaimed.

Giles looked at her sharply. "Of course not." he said.

"You can trust me Rupert, how long have we known each other." she said gently, stepping closer to him. "I won't judge you, you know that. I- I care for you Rupert, I don't want our relationship to end before it has properly started." she said looking up at him sadly.

"I promise you that I am not dabbling in anything, those days are behind me now." he said, "But you have to respect me when I say that I can't tell you."

Olivia nodded and stepped away from him. "I understand." she said coldly, before turning and storming back through to the bedroom. Giles followed closely behind her and stopped in the doorway, watching her as she grabbed her clothes and began shoving them in her holdall.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"What does it look like I'm bloody doing." she snapped, not bothering to look up at him.

"Don't you think you're over reacting." he said, "I didn't mean for you to leave."

"Rupert a relationship is based on trust, If we don't have that then what do we have." She said, glaring up at him.

"I do trust you." Giles said.

"Obviously not enough." she said, grabbing a pair of trousers from the chair in the corner she quickly pulled them on, before grabbing her bag and storming through the house. She stopped at the front door and turned to face him. "I'm sorry Rupert, I really thought we had something." she said sadly. She opened the front door and was about to leave when Giles grabbed her by the arm.

"Wait!" he exclaimed. "I don't want you to go." he looked at her pleadingly. "I'll answer any question's you have if you promise me that you won't leave me." he said quietly.

Olivia looked up into his eyes and saw that he was telling the truth, she also saw the love in his eyes and couldn't help but smile. "Okay." she said softly, allowing him to pull her into a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms round his waist. Her grin grew although this time it was for a different reason, if Giles was able to see her smile now he would have known that her true intentions where anything but good.

**Tara's house**

Willow looked around at the mess, there where magic books lying scattered everywhere and coffee cups where quickly piling up on the table. Sighing she turned to face her friend, who merely looked at her sheepishly and brushed some books off of the armchair in the corner, gesturing for Willow to have a seat.

"S-sorry about the mess." she said.

"You haven't slept all night have you?" Willow asked already knowing the answer.

Tara shook her head , "I wanted to see if I could find anything that could help fix what I'd done to Faith." she raised her hand as she saw Willow about to object. "Buffy already gave me a p-pep talk, and I know it wasn't entirely m-my fault but I w-want to fix this, I n-need to fix this." she said firmly.

"I understand." Willow said, "and I'm not going to stop you, but you need to take care of yourself as well Tara." she said in concern. "Let me take care of you."

Tara smiled softly at the request. "O-okay." she said meeting Willow's gaze shyly.

Willow smiled before her resolve face slipped into place, "Good, now you eat this." she said handing her the bag of food. "While I tidy up round here, and then missy you are going to go up stairs and sleep while I carry on finishing what you started in the research department." she said firmly.

Tara raised her hand in a salute. "Y-yes sir." she said causing Willow to smile, before she sat down in the chair and began to eat, content to watch Willow rushing around like a mother hen.

**Tbc.**

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	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: Thanks for the reviews peeps, glad to know you're still on board :-) Okay so this chapter isn't as long as I would have liked but I wanted to submit it now, and I ran out of things to add to it. Hope you guys like it. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 12**

**Buffy's house - Afternoon**

Willow had left Tara sleeping at her house with a promise to meet up later. Meanwhile she was in the middle of the arduous task of helping Buffy pick her courses. She flicked through the prospectus while Buffy sat next to her armed with a pen and a piece of paper . "Have you found anything?" Buffy asked idly tapping the pen against the table.

"Introduction to the modern novel." Willow said reading from the brochure, "A survey study of twentieth century novelists, open to freshmen. You might like that." she said hesitantly.

Buffy grimaced. "Introduction to the modern novel? I'm guessing I probably have to read the modern novel." she said.

Willow nodded, "Maybe more than one."

Buffy sighed, "Okay so that one goes on my bad list." she said scribbling on the paper in front of her. She looked up and saw Willow staring at her. "I like books, I just don't want to take on too much." she said defensively.

Willow sighed, "How many have you got on your bad list now?" she asked curiously.

"Including that one twelve, but I've got psych on my good list." Buffy said optimistically.

"That's only cause I made you write it down." Willow said, "Okay I'm thinking like me, I need to think like you, what classes would you like to do." she said looking at the brochure thoughtfully. "Wait! Images of pop culture, this is good!" she exclaimed. "They watch movies, T.V shows, even commercials."

"For credit?" Buffy asked hopefully, Willow nodded. "Score one for the good list." Buffy said making a note of the class. "How did I miss that one?" she asked frowning.

"Well you did sorta wait till the last minute with your course selection." Willow said, "Which is understandable." she added quickly, seeing the look of sadness flash over Buffy's features.

"I know, it's just life at UC Sunnydale doesn't seem so appealing at the moment." she said, "I've got Faith to worry about, slaying to do and Giles says I've got to be secret identity gal again." They both looked up as the doorbell rang. Looking over at the clock Buffy saw that it was too early for Drake to be here, which meant that it had to be her watcher. "Speak of the devil." she said.

Getting up from the table she walked through the dining room and into the hall. Opening the front door she frowned when she saw Olivia standing next to Giles.

"What is she doing here?" she asked, glaring over at her watcher.

"I invited her, she's here to help." Giles said trying to diffuse the tension he could feel building between the two women.

"Can she be trusted?" Buffy asked warily.

"Yes." Giles replied without hesitation.

Buffy wordlessly stepped aside allowing the two of them to come in, and closed the door behind them.

"Buffy I heard what happened to Faith." Olivia said, sympathetically, "I'm sorry."

Buffy smiled tightly, "Why should you be, it's not your fault." she said, before walking back into the dining room.

Olivia turned to Giles and raised her eyebrows. "Why do I get the feeling she doesn't like me?" she said.

Giles gave her a small smile, "She doesn't hate you, she's just going through a lot at the moment. Give her time." he said gently.

They followed Buffy and saw that Willow was sitting at the table looking at them expectantly.

"Willow this is my partner Olivia." Giles said, ignoring the looks of surprise on the girls faces as he introduced them to his girlfriend.

"Giles can I talk to you for a minute." Buffy said, the statement more of an order than a request. She went through into the kitchen knowing that he would follow.

Giles smiled apologetically at Olivia, "I'll be back in a minute make yourself comfortable." he said, before heading into the kitchen. He saw Buffy leaning against the kitchen counter with her arms crossed. "Buffy-"

"I can't believe you brought her here." She said her tone disbelieving. "What did you tell her?"

Giles sighed and removed his glasses. "I explained the entire situation and she wants to help us."

"The _entire_ situation, so she knows what I am? And what Faith is?" she asked incredulously, snorting as she saw Giles nod in reply. "I can't believe you! When I date someone new I'm not allowed to say anything about what I am or what I do, I have to make excuses and lie. I didn't know that there was one rule for slayers and another for watchers!" she exclaimed.

"There isn't, but I trust Olivia, she already has an understanding of the supernatural. She may know something that can help us." he reasoned.

"You better hope for your sake that she does, and if she does anything to hurt me or Faith I'll hold you responsible." she said coldly, storming out of the kitchen, leaving a shocked Giles behind.

**Business district - Sunnydale**

Riley looked at the case file that Professor Walsh had given him, it contained all the relevant information on a certain Buffy Summers. He looked at the picture of the cute blonde in the file and smiled. "She is definitely my type." he said to himself as he stepped into the elevator. He had first met the slayer in the alley a couple of nights ago, but hadn't got a good look at her due to the fact that she'd been intent on hospitalising most of his men.

Professor Walsh had made her intentions clear to him. He was to trail the slayer and find a way to get to the Garou. They already knew where the slayer lived however they didn't want to risk exposure and the fact that the slayer knew people with mystical knowledge meant that it was unlikely that they could easily break into her house and kidnap her so called _girlfriend_.

He smiled to himself as he stared at the photo, in a couple of days time he would be given his 'new abilities' courtesy of professor Walsh. This was when he was to make his move and what better way to stalk the slayer than getting up all close and personal. He was determined to make the slayer his, and after all, what girl could resist a guy with super powers.

**Buffy's house**

The silence was overwhelming as everybody concentrated solely on the books in front of them, Buffy refusing to meet Giles' and Olivia's gaze, only occasionally talking to Willow, who was sat next to her, wondering what had happened between Buffy and Giles in the kitchen.

Olivia looked round the table and realised that now was probably a better time than any to make her move. "Buffy do you mind if I use your bathroom?" she asked sweetly, not wanting to give anybody cause for concern.

Buffy didn't lift her eyes from the book, "It's upstairs, first door on the right." she said shortly.

"Thanks." Olivia said curtly, glaring at the back of Buffy's head before heading up the stairs.

When she reached the landing she paused, checking behind her to make sure that no one had followed her, she turned and headed down the other side of the hall towards Buffy's room. Looking in through the open door she saw Faith sitting on the bed watching television.

Stepping into the room, she closed the door behind her. When she turned round she wasn't surprised to see the Garou staring at her. "Hello Faith." she said, cautiously stepping closer to the bed.

Faith stared at her cautiously. "The door shouldn't let you in." she mumbled, moving further up the bed away from Olivia, who merely watched her curiously. "Protects me from the bad people."

"Buffy lied to you Faith." Olivia said. "The door stops you getting out, the bad people can still come in." She smiled at the hurt and betrayal that appeared on Faith's face.

Faith shook her head vehemently. "No, Buffy wouldn't lie, s-she loves me." she said firmly.

"If she loves you why did she tell me to come and see you." Olivia said, "You know what I am Faith, you saw me in the alley. You know what I can do, and your precious _Buffy_ knows as well, she thinks your stupid, I mean look at you!" she said gesturing at Faith who was near tears. "Your weak, you're a gibbering wreck and everyone is downstairs laughing at how pathetic you are." she spat.

"No! You're wrong, your bad!" Faith said, ignoring the tears that where streaming down her face. "Go away!" she pleaded. "Leave me alone."

"I can't do that Faith, you see I don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to the thing in your head."

Faith shook her head and clamped her hands over her temples, "No!"

"I know he's in there Faith."

"H-he's gone, can't come out." Faith whimpered.

Olivia flicked her fingers, bringing out her claws, "Luckily I have just the thing to bring him out to play." she said. Faith looked up in time to see Olivia slice her claws across her forearm drawing blood. As soon as the coppery scent hit her Faith groaned, as she felt her body rebelling against her. Shaking her head she broke the spell and backed away from Olivia.

"No! not again, please!" she pleaded. "Don't want to hurt anyone."

"Hmm, obviously not enough how about some more?" Olivia asked playfully, slashing her claws across her thigh and shoulder. The scent of Olivia's blood was now overwhelming, Faith could feel her body shifting and fought against it, crying out in pain she fought desperately against the change, but in her weakened frame of mind she stood no chance against the Entity that was quickly taking over her mind.

Olivia watched gleefully as Faith changed into her wolf form, she took a deep breath and screamed for the benefit of those downstairs, knowing that this performance would be better with an audience. Turning to face the oncoming Garou she smiled as she heard the bedroom door burst open behind her.

**Tbc.**

**A/N: There's a wee cliff-hanger for you guys, stay tuned to find out what happens next :-)**

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	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, sorry to keep you in suspense but luckily you didn't have to wait too long lol.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 13**

Buffy threw open the bedroom door in time to see Faith in wolf form crash into Olivia and send her flying towards the doorway. Her heart sank as she saw Faith's eyes burning red, and she knew that the Entity was in control. Before Faith had a chance to react she ran into the room and grabbed Olivia under the shoulders, dragging her from the room and into the hallway.

Faith roared in fury as she saw the target of her bloodlust being taken, and ran towards the door and the humans that where standing watching. However as soon as she tried to cross the threshold she found herself flying backwards as she collided with the invisible barrier. She lay dazed on the floor before shaking head and slowly climbing to her feet. She roared again before throwing herself at the barrier, furiously trying to break through.

Buffy felt someone roughly push her aside and saw that it was Giles, he positioned himself in the doorway and raised the tranquilliser gun, when he saw that Faith was too close to avoid his shots, he fired two darts into her chest, sending her crashing to the floor as the sedative took immediate effect.

Olivia groaned in pain drawing everyone's attention away from the scene before them. Giles threw the tranquilliser gun away and quickly knelt beside her. "Dear Lord." he exclaimed as he caught site of the lacerations covering her body. "Olivia, can you hear me?" he asked anxiously.

Olivia coughed weakly before slowly opening her eyes. "R-Rupert?"

"It's okay, you're safe now." Giles said soothingly, "We need to get you to a hospital." he said carefully lifting Olivia into his arms.

Buffy looked at Faith's prone form before glaring over at Olivia, "What where you doing in my room?" she asked warily.

Giles shot her a look of exasperation, "Buffy now is not the time for this, she needs to get to a hospital. We'll talk later." he said his tone holding no room for argument.

"But Giles - "

"Buffy enough!" he snapped. "I want Faith chained in the basement by the time I get back." he said firmly. "It was stupid of me to think she could be trusted." Buffy stared at him in shock as he pushed roughly past her and Willow, as he carried Olivia down the stairs. Both girls watched him go, surprised at his outburst.

Willow looked over at her friend and saw the look of hurt flash across her face before it was quickly replaced by anger. "H-He didn't mean it Buffy, he's just worried about Olivia." she said, laying a comforting hand on her friends shoulder.

"No, he meant it." Buffy said quietly, "And he's wrong, Olivia's the one that can't be trusted. She's up to something I know she is." she exclaimed. "And I'm going to prove it."

Willow looked at her sympathetically. "I know you don't like Olivia, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but just because she's going out with Giles's doesn't mean that she's evil."

"With this being Sunnydale there's a pretty good chance that she is." Buffy said. Kneeling next to the prone form of her girlfriend, she began to study her intently, trying to find a clue or something to prove that Faith didn't do it.

Willow watched her friend in concern. "I know you're freaked out about Giles, finally having a girlfriend, add to that the fact that you and Faith kinda walked in on them together a couple of days ago, I mean that leaves deep, deep psychological scarring, of which you've had plenty not that you're mad or anything, or that you will be mad I just mean that you have to give her a chance." she said.

Buffy looked up at her incredulously, "I was willing to give her a chance until she walked into my bedroom and provoked Faith into attacking her." she said, looking closely at Faith's claws as something caught her eye. "Or at least she wants us to think that Faith attacked her." she mumbled in realisation.

"What makes you think that she's lying?" Willow asked curiously.

"Just look at this." Buffy said, holding up Faith's paw, Willow moved into the room and knelt beside Faith.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" she asked in confusion.

Buffy sighed in exasperation. "Olivia had lacerations all over her body right."

"Right." Willow nodded, "They where caused by Faith's claws." she said.

"Well if Faith did it, then why are her claws clean, why aren't they covered in blood?" Buffy said.

Willow studied Faith intently before looking up at Buffy in realisation. "You're right, I mean if she'd done that to Olivia she'd at least have some blood on her." she said. "But why would Olivia lie?" she asked in confusion.

"That I don't know. But in the meantime we can't let Giles know." Buffy said. "For a start he won't believe us and it'll only push him further away from us, which is probably what Olivia wants." she gently ran her hand through Faith's fur, before looking back up at Willow. "Do you think you can try and do a background check on Olivia? I want to know who or what she really is."

Willow nodded "I'll see what I can do." she said, pushing herself up from the floor. "But you might have to face the fact that I might not find anything." she said.

Buffy sighed, "I know, but right now I'm willing to bet she's up to something, and I'll be damned if she's going to mess with my friends and family." she said firmly.

**Meanwhile - Darkwater Estate - Boston**

Marcus strolled through the massive hallway heading towards the meeting room where the rest of the elders where awaiting him. As chief elder of the Garou clan and Alpha male it was his opinion that counted, and he alone had the power to control the clan.

Throwing open the large oak doors to the main chamber he was greeted by the sound of indistinct chattering, however as soon as the other wolves became aware of his presence all noise ceased as they turned to face him.

Marcus smiled and walked towards the large oak table in the centre of the room, as he passed he felt the gazes of his fellow elders watching him. He sat himself in the vacant seat at the head of the table and faced his brethren. "Welcome brothers." he said. "No doubt you are wondering why I've called you here today. Like me you have felt the evil that permeates out link with our fellow wolves." he said looking at them questioningly. He wasn't surprised when he was greeted with murmurs of agreement. "This evil is not knew to us, it is something that plagued our clan over a decade ago."

An elder named Tobias looked at him anxiously "The incident with Ryan?" he asked, earning a solemn nod form Marcus. "Goddess, but surely this Entity perished when we executed him?"

Marcus shook his head, "It would appear that it managed to escape the sprit planes and has possessed a member of our clan." he explained, greeted by shocked murmurs. He raised his hand requesting silence. "We know that if this entity manages to pass on to a being of higher power, it will cause the seal beneath our feet to reopen." he said. "Bringing with it a world of carnage."

"We were only fortunate that Ryan's death caused the seal to close." Tobias said.

Marcus nodded, "It would appear that history is repeating itself."

"Do you have any idea who this wolf could be?" An elder asked curiously.

"The entity could only have passed onto the wolves that where present at Ryan's execution." he said. "The only option we have is to find these wolves and eliminate them." he said firmly.

The rest of the elders looked at him in surprise. "Marcus, surely you don't mean that, these wolves will have mates, children-"

"We have no other choice!" Marcus snapped. "For all we know they could be carrying the Entity within them. The bloodlust isn't always a sign. This creature has survived for millennia by hiding within hosts. The fate of the world rests on our shoulders, we can't allow this thing to live just because we will be leaving families without husbands and wives."

"But - " Tobias started, before he was silenced by a bestial growl.

Marcus glared at him, his eyes flashing yellow. "Are you questioning my authority Tobias?" he growled.

"N-no Marcus, I'm merely concerned that we will be killing innocent people." he stammered, dropping his gaze to the table, in an act of submission.

"The death of a handful of innocent people is nothing compared to the deaths of millions of innocents, as that is what will happen if the Entity manages to open this seal." he stated. "Nikolai, I want you to summon those wolves here, I will take care of this myself." he said, addressing the elder sat next to him, who nodded in affirmation before leaving the chamber.

"Tobias, I want you to send out an invitation for Faith and Drake to join us here, the chances are that the Entity could have been passed down from their father." he ordered.

"What about the slayer?" Tobias asked.

Marcus looked thoughtful, "I mean the slayer no harm, however we don't want to arouse her suspicions, extend the invitation to their mates. We will have this mess taken care of soon enough." he said.

**Tbc.**

**A/N: There you have it, whose the goodies, whose the baddies? Even I don't know and I'm writing the bloody story lol.**

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	14. Chapter 14

**Authors note: Sorry if I haven't replied to any reviews that have been sent for the last couple of chapters, it doesn't mean that I haven't been reading them because I have, and I mean it when I say that they keep me going. I promise I'll try and reply to them as soon as I can :-) Hope you like this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything, except Drake he's mine.**

**Chapter 14**

**Restfield Cemetery, Sunnydale - Evening**

Buffy slammed her stake into the vamp above her before springing to her feet. She brushed the dust off of her clothes, and ran a shaking hand through her hair. She could feel the tension that had been building the past few days beginning to ease. Although she would never admit it to anyone, the need to slay was always within her, it was a part of her and she loved it. However at the moment she wanted nothing more than to be at home with her girlfriend, and she would have been, if Willow hadn't ordered her to go and slay something.

When she didn't slay she got tetchy, add to that the anger she'd been feeling towards Olivia and trying to stay strong for Faith, she wasn't exactly the best of company at the moment. Willow and Tara where looking after Faith, who was still sedated, after Giles had been overzealous with the tranquillisers, and Drake and Cordelia weren't due to arrive for another couple of hours, so she'd had plenty of time to let off some steam. Feeling slightly more in control of her emotions, she decided to head back to the house, hoping that Drake would be there when she got home.

She needed to talk to someone who knew what she was going through, her friends meant well, but they couldn't understand. She knew that Drake could, he was Faith's brother, he had been through this before and if anyone had any answers she knew it would be him. Tucking her stake into the waistband of her jeans, she headed for the cemetery gate and home.

**Desert outside Sunnydale**

The wind swept across the open ground, whipping dust and sand into the air. The twelve figures that stood motionless in the desert seemed unaffected by the wind and the darkness. One of the group moved forward and lit a small fire in the middle of the circle, that had been formed by his brethren.

"Olivia has spoken with the Entity." he said, addressing the group of beings around him. "He commands that we awaken Lucian." he said, reaching into a pouch at his waist he removed a handful of powder which he turned and threw onto the fire, causing the flames to turn green. "The time of the Javfrach's is upon us. Our master will join forces with the Entity to release Carnage upon this world." The cloaked figures around him, each removed a human heart from a bag at their waist before placing it on the ground at their feet. As soon as the hearts touched the ground a beam of light shot from the flames, connecting them in a circle of light.

"Our kind has hidden in the never world for too long. It is time for us to reclaim what is rightfully ours." He said. The rest of his brethren raised their arms into the air and threw their heads back, a loud wail rising from deep within their throats.

The flames in the fire grew brighter, changing from green to white, growing taller as the sound of their wails increased. "Lucianus temporae risora, Lucianus temporae risora, LUCIANUS TEMPORAE RISORA!" The man commanded, the flames shot up into the air at the sound of his voice and formed a tall column of fire. The brethren around him, each withdrew a small dagger from within their cloaks and simultaneously plunged them into their chests. As the cloaked figures crumpled to the ground, the pillar of flame grew to encompass the circle and the bodies of those within it.

When the flames died back the sole remaining Javfrach stared in awe at the site before him. The bodies of his brethren where gone, and in the burning embers of the fire stood his master, Lucian had risen.

**Buffy's house**

Buffy quietly closed the front door behind her as she stepped into the house, she could hear voices in the living room and when she went through she saw Willow and Tara sitting on the sofa where she'd left them.

"Hi guys." she said tiredly.

"Hey, how did slaying go?" Willow asked in concern.

"Managed to stake a few vamps, but they where mainly newbies." she said. "Think I'll go and check on Faith, has she been okay while I was gone?" she asked anxiously.

Tara and Willow looked at each other nervously, "S-She's still sedated." Tara stammered.

"Giles is in with her." Willow added.

Buffy looked at her in confusion. "Giles? I thought he'd gone to the hospital with Olivia."

"He did, but they where keeping her in overnight as a precaution. She sent him back here to help with Faith." Willow explained.

"I bet she did." Buffy mumbled, turning and heading for the stairs.

"Uh, Buffy. Faith's not up there." Willow said hesitantly.

Buffy turned and looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"G-Giles didn't think it w-was safe t-to keep her in your r-room." Tara stammered. "H-he was worried that s-she'd hurt you."

"Well then where the hell is she?" Buffy asked angrily.

"In the basement." Willow said quietly. She didn't need to be an empath to feel the anger radiating from her best friend, however judging from the look on Tara's face she was glad of that fact. They both winced as Buffy stormed from the room, and they heard the basement door fly open, glancing at each other in concern, neither of them brave enough to try and stop an irate slayer.

**Basement**

Buffy stormed down the basement stairs, and saw her girlfriend lying chained and sedated on the cot in the corner, when she saw Giles sitting on a chair opposite her armed with a tranquilliser gun her anger grew tenfold.

"Giles what the hell do you think you're doing!" she exclaimed angrily.

Her watcher stood up and stared at her defiantly. "I'm doing what is best for you." he said firmly.

Buffy stared at him in disbelief. "What gives you the right to decide what is _best_ for me!"

"I'm your watcher." he said simply.

"That doesn't give you the right to come into _my_ house and go against _my_ orders!" she exclaimed. "I told you that I wanted Faith to stay in my room."

Giles stared at her impassively, unaffected by her outburst, "You obviously aren't thinking clearly, and neither was I when I agreed to let you keep Faith upstairs." he said.

"She was fine where she was!" Buffy stated. "She couldn't get out of the room."

"That didn't stop her from attacking Olivia." Giles said coldly. "She was almost killed."

Buffy glared at him. "That wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been stupid enough to go in my room. If she hadn't stuck her nose in where it didn't belong this wouldn't have happened."

"Enough!" Giles yelled. "You don't seem to realise the severity of the situation Buffy!" he exclaimed. "The woman I love was almost killed tonight by that animal!" he spat. "And you don't seem the least bit concerned." he said incredulously.

"Don't you _ever_ call her that again." Buffy said coldly. "Faith isn't an animal, she didn't attack Olivia." she said vehemently.

"No, but that thing inside her did." he said firmly. "And you can't keep babying her hoping that it will go away. That thing will strike when your guard is down and your back is turned."

"That thing didn't reappear until Olivia showed up." she spat. "And don't you dare accuse me of doing nothing, I'm having to watch the person I love lose more and more of her sanity each day, and I'm trying with everything I am to stop that from happening." she said. "So forgive me if I'm not concerned about _your_ girlfriend, I'm too busy worrying about my own." she said.

Giles studied her silently for several seconds before he spoke. "I'm sorry." he said. "I was out of line."

Buffy nodded. "I know." she said quietly. "Just go home okay. It's been a long day and you're tired. We'll talk about this in the morning when we've both calmed down." she said.

He nodded reluctantly and sat the tranquilliser gun on the chair beside him. "You have to believe that I'm only looking out for you Buffy." he said.

"I know." she said smiling sadly. "Now go, I'll be okay Willow and Tara are here."

He smiled sadly before turning and leaving the basement. Buffy watched him leave, before she headed over to the cot and sat next to her girlfriend. She absently ran a hand through Faith's fur, drawing comfort from the soft feel of it against her fingers. She sat there in silence, listening to Faith's soft breathing, as she went over her 'conversation' with Giles.

She had her suspicions about Olivia and had nearly said as much to Giles. But when he'd said he'd loved Olivia she'd held back, not wanting to push her watcher further away. They'd both said things to each other that they would regret in the morning, and they'd both said things that neither of them would forget. But the real question was, if Willow managed to find any dirt on Olivia, what would she do about it. In an ideal world Giles would believe her and things would go back to the way they where. But this was Sunnydale and she lived on top of a hell mouth. The likely hood of Olivia being evil was more likely, and as the slayer it was her duty to slay evil, and as much as she would enjoy staking Olivia, she knew that it would lose her, her watcher in the process.

**Tbc.**

**A/N: Drake appears in the next chapter honest.**

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	15. Chapter 15

**Authors note: Thanks once again for the reviews, lets me know I'm wanted. I'm sorry for taking a while to update, but I'm now juggling two fics at the same time. But don't worry I _will_ finish both of them cause there's nothing worse than being left hanging. This chapter is a short one cause I'm suffering from severe writer's block, but I'm determined to finish this story so I'll battle through it :-) **

**Disclaimer: Joss owns everything, I own nothing.**

**Chapter 15**

**Buffy's house - Evening **

Willow and Tara where still sat in the living room, Giles had left half an hour ago, and Buffy was still down in the basement with Faith. After hearing the heated exchange between their two friends, the Wicca's had decided to leave Buffy alone until she'd calmed down.

"Do you think she's okay down there?" Willow asked anxiously.

Tara nodded, "S-she'll be fine, she just needs some space." she said reassuringly.

"I've never heard Giles so angry, he's normally so… " she waved her hand in the air as she trailed off.

"Cool?" Tara asked.

Willow shook her head, "No, cool people don't wear tweed. He's normally so calm and collected. I guess he took what happened to Olivia really hard." she said.

"I-I don't blame him, the woman h-he loved was nearly killed. He's bound to be upset." Tara said.

"I know, it just seems strange, Olivia appears and he's suddenly turned all weird. She's in the picture for two days and he's already told her everything about us, top secret things, and he's doubting Buffy. He never doubts Buffy!" Willow exclaimed.

"W-well he said he knew Olivia before, maybe they where childhood s-sweethearts." Tara said.

Willow looked at her doubtfully. "I don't know there's just something fishy about her. I mean why would she pretend that Faith attacked her, it just doesn't make any sense." she said. "Unless she's trying to come between Buffy and Giles."

Tara looked thoughtful, "But then there's the q-question of why. I mean what would she get out of it?" she asked

"Because she's evil." Buffy said, causing Willow and Tara to jump as they saw her standing in the doorway. "She wants us all to fall out so that she can do her evil business without any of us trying to stop her." she said, as she walked over to the couch and sat opposite the two Wicca's. "Or at least that's what I hope she's doing, so that I can stake her for being evil, or annoying, either one works for me."

"How's Faith?" Tara asked in concern.

"Still sedated, and still wolfie. If you ask me Giles got carried away with the tranq gun." she said, running a hand through her hair, before leaning against the arm of the couch.

Willow looked at Buffy anxiously. "Do you think the Entity will still be in control when she wakes up?"

"God I hope not, but if it is I want to talk to the bastard." Buffy said coldly.

"H-Hold on, Olivia hurt herself right?" Tara asked, and was greeted by nods of affirmation. "Well what made the Entity take over Faith?" At first she was greeted with blank stares, before she saw realisation dawn on Buffy's features.

"The blood!" Buffy exclaimed. "This Entity thing feeds of death and destruction. Olivia's blood must have been the trigger."

Willow frowned. "But how would she know that?"

"Giles told her everything, plus she could have overheard us talking when we went to see Giles the other day. She must have been trying to summon the Entity and disguised the fact by making it look like Faith had flipped and attacked her." Buffy explained.

"Let's say that this is true, it would mean that Olivia knows what this Entity is and what it wants." Willow said.

Buffy nodded, "And if she knows all that she's bound to know how to get rid of it."

"B-But what are we going to do about her?" Tara asked. "Anything we try to do to s-stop her will only push Giles further away." she reasoned.

"I know, which is why we can't tell Giles anything, let me deal with Olivia." Buffy said firmly.

The discussion was interrupted as the doorbell rang, glancing at the clock on the wall, Buffy smiled as she realised that it could only be one person, Willow and Tara looked at each other in amusement as Buffy rushed from the room, before following their friend.

When the front door opened Drake caught a glimpse of blonde hair before he found himself with an armful of slayer. He had no other choice but to drop his mate's luggage as he wrapped his arms round Buffy and returned the hug.

"God it's good to see you." Buffy exclaimed.

Drake smiled and ran his hand soothingly across Buffy's back. "It's good to see you too Buffy." he said gently, "It's just too bad that it couldn't be under better circumstances." he said

The sound of a throat clearing behind them caused them both to break the hug. When Buffy pulled back she saw a very miffed looking Cordelia standing with her arms crossed.

"Hi Cordelia." Buffy said sheepishly.

"Buffy." she replied, "Well where's my hug?" she asked, holding her arms out to her sides, expectantly. Buffy smiled sheepishly and pulled her into a quick hug.

"Good to see you too Cordy." she said quietly.

"Wow that's probably the first and last time I'll ever hear you say that." Cordelia exclaimed, pulling back from the hug she gestured for everyone to move inside. "C'mon lets get inside and get down to business, we've got to fix your honey." she said smiling gently at Buffy, before turning to glare at Drake, "While _my_ honey picks up my _expensive, _designer travel cases, that he threw only seconds ago." Drake smiled apologetically and did as he was told before following the two women into the house.

"Hey guys." Cordelia said, seeing the two Wicca's standing in the hallway.

"Hi you two, long time no see." Willow said happily.

"Where's Xander?" Cordelia asked noticing the distinct lack of her ex.

"H-He's on a road trip, he said he wanted to try and s-see the world." Tara said.

Cordelia, raised a sceptical eyebrow. "And here's me thinking he was avoiding me." she said.

They all looked round as Drake struggled into the house with Cordelia's luggage, trying not to drop anything and risk the wrath of his mate. "D-Do you need a hand?" Tara asked.

Drake shook his head as he sat the bags down in the hall. "No it's okay, believe me these things are heavier than they look." he said.

"How long are you staying for?" Buffy asked.

"We can only stay a couple of nights, we've got a demon problem back in L.A the crew we've got can handle it for a couple of nights but no longer." he said. "I wish I could stay longer but this was the most I could manage." he said apologetically.

"Crew in LA? What do you guys do?" Willow asked curiously, as she followed Cordelia and Tara into the living room.

Buffy watched them go before turning to Drake who was standing awkwardly in the hall. "You can go and see her if you want." she said gently.

Drake nodded, "Where is she?"

"She's down in the basement, she's still sedated from what happened earlier." Buffy said, seeing the confusion on Drake's face she explained the incident with Olivia and Faith, and Olivia's possible involvement with all things evil and demonic.

Drake frowned, "Nothing's ever simple is it." he said angrily. "I'm gonna go and see my sister, then I think you and me should go and pay this Olivia a visit." he said, "If she thinks she can mess with my family and get away with it she's got another thing coming." he said.

**Sunnydale General Hospital**

Olivia lay on the hospital bed feigning sleep. She had felt the passing of her brethren and knew that it could only mean one thing, Lucian had arisen and as the temporary leader of the Javfrach's she knew that he would be coming for her.

Once again she cursed Giles and the hospital staff, if it hadn't been for them making her stay the night she would have been able to leave undetected and go to Lucian herself. She could feel that the wounds beneath her dressings had healed, but she'd had to stay to maintain her cover. And with her master coming for her it meant that she would draw unwanted attention. She would have to leave with him, under the pretence that she was being kidnapped, which would add fuel to the fire that was Buffy and Giles relationship. She knew that the slayer probably had a rough idea of what she was up to, the watcher however was clueless which suited her down to the ground.

A large explosion interrupted her train of thought, opening her eyes she saw that the room had been plunged into darkness. Judging by the screams of pain and terror she could hear in the corridor outside, she gathered that her master had arrived. She smiled, as she threw the covers from her bed and got up to open the door. It was time to put her plan into action.

**TBC**

**A/N: I know the actions a bit slow, but I promise I'll have action galore in the next chapter, cause I really want to speed things up a bit.**

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	16. Chapter 16

**Authors note: I'm really, really, really sorry for taking months and months to update. But work's been a bitch, I had to have my wisdom teeth out, and I had a severe case of writers block, which seems to be becoming more and more common. Thanks to everyone that reviewed, as always they're greatly appreciated. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 16**

**Buffy's house - living room**

"So what have you guys been getting up to in L.A?" Willow asked curiously.

"We've started our own business, if anyone has any problems of the supernatural kind they come to us for help." Cordelia explained. "It pays really well." she said happily.

Buffy looked at her incredulously. "You charge people money for helping them?"

"Yup." Cordelia said, "I mean why not? We put our lives on the line for these people, so why shouldn't we get a little money in return." she said practically.

Buffy turned to Willow, "Why didn't I think of doing that?" she asked pouting slightly.

Willow patted her shoulder soothingly. "Maybe you could run the idea past Giles see what he says." she said hopefully.

Buffy sighed, "I don't think he'd be open to that, especially not after what happened to Olivia." she said.

Cordelia frowned, "Whose this Olivia?" she asked in confusion.

"She's Giles's girlfriend." Buffy said.

"Oh my God he's got a girlfriend?!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Is she blind?"

"No she's evil." Buffy replied.

"Well that explains it. Does Giles know she's evil?" she asked.

"N-No." Tara stammered, "We don't w-want him to find out till w-we've got proof."

"What makes you think she's evil?" Cordelia asked.

"She cut herself in order to talk to the Entity that's possessing Faith, then she made it seem as if Faith attacked her." Buffy said, "Plus she's annoying." she added.

"Sounds reasonable to me." Cordelia said, shrugging. "How is Faith?"

"I don't know, she's still sedated from Giles's rambo impersonation." Buffy said, "I just want all this to be over."

Cordelia smiled in understanding, she didn't know if she would be able to cope if she was in Buffy's position, she wouldn't know what she would do if Drake lost control of his wolf. "We're here to help Buffy." she said gently. "And if there's anything I know, it's that Drake doesn't give up on his family."

**Meanwhile - Basement**

Drake hesitantly entered the basement, as he slowly made his way down the basement stairs he caught site of his sister lying on the cot in the corner. The anger and helplessness he'd felt since receiving the phone call from Buffy returned and grew tenfold, as he saw her lying chained and bound.

As he approached the cot he stopped as he saw his sister beginning to stir. He waited anxiously, unsure what to expect. Although Faith had lived through the slaughter of their family she didn't know the full horror of the things that the Entity had put their father through, where as he did. For him this was personal, the shadow of the Entity had hung over their family for years, and he was damned if it was going to destroy Faith.

He waited with bated breath as Faith grunted and slowly blinked her eyes open, sighing with relief when he saw that her eyes weren't those of the demon within her. He quickly stepped towards her as she began whining when she realised that she was restrained.

"Faith, Karella mir suchattah (It's okay, I'm here now)." He said kneeling beside the cot. He ran his hand through Faith's fur and smiled as she licked his hand affectionately, before changing back into her human form. "Hache murrtah? (How are you feeling?)" He asked gently.

Faith ignored him as she looked round the basement in confusion, before tugging once again at her restraints, "Succhra mir trach surr?! (What did I do?!)." she said agitation evident in her tone. "Tesfra Buffy? (Where's Buffy?)"

Drake laid a calming hand on her shoulder. "Buffy su mach (Buffy's upstairs)."

"Farre morta sir tre asstrah (She did this, she's laughing at me)."She stammered.

"Wortro bachhe? (Whose laughing at you?)" Drake asked.

Faith growled in frustration, "Everybody!" she yelled, reverting back to English, "She said this would happen, they're all against me! I shouldn't be here!"

"Who said that?" He asked, having a feeling that he already knew.

"Olivia." Buffy answered coldly, startling him as he hadn't heard her enter the basement. Turning round he saw her standing at the bottom of the stairs, her fists clenched at her sides. Judging from the look on her face she'd heard everything that had been said.

Faith looked over at her mate pleadingly, and held her shackled hands out towards her, "Please let me go." she begged, "I'll be good I promise."

Buffy sighed, forcing herself to remain calm, she walked over to the cot and sat beside her mate and Drake. "I know you will honey, but it's the bad thing inside you I can't trust." she said, taking Faith's hand in her own.

"I won't let him hurt anyone, please." she pleaded, "I don't want to stay down here, let me go."

"Baby I can't." Buffy whispered, reaching up to stroke Faith's cheek, "I didn't want to put you down here, but it's safer for everyone."

Drake nodded, "We're going to talk to Olivia, see if we can find out how to get rid of the Entity." he said, standing up from the cot.

"Don't leave me down here!" Faith pleaded, pulling against her chains as she saw them getting ready to leave. "Please, I don't like it, please." Buffy felt her heartbreaking as she saw the fear in Faith's eyes, she wanted nothing more than to stay with her girlfriend but she knew that if she didn't go and speak to Olivia she wouldn't get the answers she so desperately needed. Gently taking Faith's head in her hands she looked into her eyes. "I'll only be gone for a few minutes, and Tara, Willow and Cordelia are here if you need anything." Buffy said softly, "I need you to be strong for me while I'm gone okay." She smiled sadly as Faith nodded. "Good girl." she whispered, kissing Faith softly on the lips, before turning and heading for the stairs. As she opened the basement door she was surprised to see Tara about to enter.

"How is she?" Tara asked, looking at them in concern.

Buffy sighed, "She's scared, and confused. I really don't want to leave her down there but I've got no choice."

Tara smiled softly and placed a reassuring hand on Buffy's shoulder, "Don't worry I'll stay with her." she said gently.

"Thank you." Buffy said, hesitating slightly. "Promise me you'll be careful, I know with all my heart that she won't hurt me, but it doesn't mean that she won't hurt anyone else." she said quietly.

Tara nodded, "I'll be careful." she said softly.

Drake took a deep breath and looked at Buffy. "Ready?" he asked.

Buffy nodded. "As I'll ever be." she said.

Drake grinned, "Great, let's go pay the bitch a visit."

**Sunnydale General Hospital**

As Buffy and Drake approached the hospital, they could see at least a dozen cop cars parked haphazardly outside the main doors to the hospital. The large number of people outside adding to the growing doubt that Olivia was still inside.

"Why do I get the feeling that something bads happened and we're too late." Buffy said sighing heavily.

"Because we're on the Hell mouth, and nine times out of ten something bad always happens." Drake said, "Why don't you fish about and see if you can find out what's happening, while I see if I can pick up any scents that are out of the ordinary."

"Okay, I'll meet you back here in ten minutes." she said, turning and heading for the large crowd of people. Deciding to play the role of concerned relative she headed, for the police officer nearest the doors.

The cop saw her approaching and held out his arm, preventing her from entering the hospital. "Excuse me ma'am, I'm afraid nobody is allowed in, or out of the hospital, apart from medical emergencies." he said gruffly.

"You don't understand I need to get in there, I got a call saying my sister was just admitted and I need to see her." she said desperately.

"I'm sorry, but my orders aren't to let any members of the public inside, not until it's deemed safe." The officer said, his tone more sympathetic towards her.

"Why what's happened?" she asked anxiously. "Is my sister in danger?"

"You're sister isn't in any danger, as far as we're aware an explosion was noted on the third floor of the hospital, at the moment we're not sure what the cause is, which is why we have the area cordoned off." he said gently.

"When will I be able to get in to see her?" She asked.

"If you go and stand with the other relatives over there, I'll notify you as soon as I find out." he said, "That's the best I can do I'm afraid."

Buffy nodded, "Thank you officer." she said heading towards the area he had gestured to, seeing Drake standing at the back of the crowd, she made quickly made her way towards him.

"Did you get anything?" Drake asked.

Buffy nodded, "Sort of, the cops don't really know what happened, but there was an explosion reported on the third floor." she said, falling into step with Drake as they headed out of the hospital grounds and back towards the centre of Sunnydale. "What about you?"

"Couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary, which is the problem. Explosives, natural or otherwise, normally leave a residual smell." he explained.

"Which only leaves supernatural." Buffy said grimly. "Why do I have the feeling that Olivia's involved."

"If she is, who does she know that's powerful enough to blast their way into a hospital?" Drake asked.

Buffy sighed, "I don't have a clue, we know nothing about her at all, other than the fact that she's got Giles wrapped round her little finger, and that she's in for some serious pain when I get my hands on her." They where coming up to Restfield cemetery when Drake stopped in his tracks, and sniffed the air.

"What is it?" Buffy asked, looking around for any signs of trouble.

Drake looked round frowning, "I don't know, I can smell something on the air. It's faint, but it smells familiar." he said, his nostrils flaring as he tried to pinpoint where the scent was coming from. "Where the hell have I smelt it before." he mumbled to himself. His eyes widened in realisation, "Shit, in the basement, there was a scent I didn't recognise on Faith."

"That means-"

"It's Olivia." Drake finished. They both spun round as they heard clapping behind them.

Olivia stood there smiling sardonically at them, "Well done." she said, "Although I was looking forward to surprising the pair of you."

Drake growled and stepped towards her, "What do you want with my sister?" he asked.

Olivia smiled, "You're sister? Oh you must mean Faith, which means that you're a Garou as well." she said, "Giles hadn't mentioned that there where more of you." she said eyeing Drake up and down.

Buffy stepped forward, "What do you want with us? What's your game Olivia." she asked coldly.

"My game? I don't play games little girl. What I do is for real." she replied. "As for you, I don't have any need for you or you're friends, I want the Entity, pure and simple."

"What about Giles?" Buffy asked, watching Olivia warily, for someone unarmed and alone, she seemed unafraid of a pissed of Garou and slayer.

Olivia laughed, "Giles is no longer you're concern, her serves me now." she said. "You aren't as powerful as you think Buffy, while you stand here talking to me, my master is on his way to retrieve the Entity. Once he absorbs it's power he will be unstoppable, and my people will once again rule this earth." she said.

Buffy's face paled as Olivia's words sunk in. "The blast at the hospital, it was a distraction." she stated numbly.

"Give the girl a cookie, she's catching on. I knew you would come looking for me, while you where busy searching the rubble at the hospital, it gave my master time to get what he wanted without a pesky slayer interrupting."

"Faith." Buffy whispered fearfully.

"I wouldn't waste time running to her aid slayer, by the time you get there it will already be too late." Olivia said grinning, "The apocalypse is upon us, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"Buffy, go help my sister, I'll take care of Olivia." Drake said, glaring at the woman before him. He didn't need to tell Buffy twice, as soon as she heard him dismiss her she ran, as fast as she could back to her house, praying that she would make it in time.

Drake growled, his brown eyes, turning a golden hue, as his anger and fear overwhelmed him and his wolf took control. "It's time to play bitch." he said.

"Bring it on." Olivia grinned, throwing herself fearlessly at the Garou before her.

**Tbc.**

**A/N: The next update will definitely be a lot sooner than this one was, I promise. Please R and R, it's my brain food : - )**

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	17. Chapter 17

**Author's note: Hello it's me again, sorry didn't mean to leave you hanging, didn't realise how long it's been since the last update. Sorry for leaving you with a cliff-hanger for so long, that was just cruel lol. Anyway here's what you've been waiting for, this chaps been on my computer for ages, and I'm still not happy with it, but I'll leave it up to you guys to decide :-)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 17**

**Revello Drive**

Cordelia hovered over Willow's shoulder, trying to see the computer screen, as Willow looked for information on Giles's supposedly dodgy girlfriend. "So what are we looking for exactly?" Cordelia asked, a hint of boredom in her tone.

Willow sighed, "I don't know really, anything that looks suspicious." she said, typing furiously on the computer keys.

"Do you really think this Olivia person is as guilty as Buffy says she is?"

Willow stopped typing and turned to study Cordelia. "What are you saying?"

Cordelia sighed, "I mean, has she actually done anything evil, and sinister, or does Buffy just hate her cause she's spending more time with Giles?"

"She provoked an insane werewolf into attacking her, that isn't normal behaviour." Willow replied incredulously, "Besides I trust Buffy's judgement, she's never been wrong before." she said firmly.

"Well there's always a first time for everything." Cordelia mumbled. The sound of the doorbell startled them both, "I'll get it, you keep searching." Cordelia said, gesturing towards the computer. "The sooner we find out whether she's the skank from hell, the better." she commented, heading through to the hallway.

The next thing Willow heard was Cordelia screaming, before the power went off, plunging the house into darkness.

**Meanwhile - Sunnydale, streets. **

One minute Drake was charging Olivia, the next he was flying through the air, before colliding heavily with a parked car across the street. Shaking his head in confusion, he climbed to his feet, and shook the glass from his fur.

Olivia laughed, drawing Drakes attention and earning a growl in the process. "Now, now wolf. You'll have to do better than that if you actually want to best me." she said, stalking towards him. "I'm not the easy kill you anticipated."

Drake growled and watched her warily, if he'd wanted proof that she wasn't human, then he had it. Whatever she was, it meant that she was stronger and faster than he was, if he wanted to put the bitch in her place he was going to have to use brain rather than brawn.

Olivia caught the glint in the Garou's eye and shook her head in amusement. "I can see that you are planning something, which is surprising in itself considering what you are." she said, "From what I've heard, you're kind don't have the capacity for intelligent thoughts, what with you having the mental capacity of a retarded poodle, and you're sister being a gibbering idiot."

Drake ignored the comment, he knew that she was trying to goad him into attacking her, while his wolf screamed at him to do exactly that, his human side knew that he had to be patient. He had to find her weakness.

**Revello Drive**

Tara heard the screams from upstairs and fought the urge to run and help. She could feel a dark energy in the air, and knew without a doubt that whatever had entered the house would be after Faith. Or more importantly what was inside Faith.

Hearing a whine, she turned to see Faith cowering in the corner of the basement, frantically clawing at the chains on her wrists. "He's coming, wants the bad man."

Tara was about to make her way towards her, when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

// _Tara you must let him have the entity // _Tara recognised it from the battle at the high school. A feeling of peace overcame her, and she could see Faith visibly calm, as she too felt the unseen force.

"B-But it will use it to open the hell m-mouth." she stammered.

// _This must be done, it has been foretold // _The voice replied

Tara looked over at her friend, "What about Faith? Will it harm her?" she asked in concern.

// _The wolf will be unharmed for the time being, let fate run it's course. The Javfrach must have the entity. It's the only way. Out of the carnage comes purity._ // With that said, the feeling of peace quickly departed, as the basement door flew open and a dark presence descended the stairs. Tara backed up against the wall, the voices words echoing in her head. She had no idea who or what the voice belonged to, but it had helped save them in the past, so she could only help that it spoke the truth now.

She could only close her eyes and try to block out the sounds of Faith whining in fear, as she felt the malevolent force draw nearer. Sending up a prayer for forgiveness as she heard her friend cry out in pain.

**Meanwhile - Darkwater estate, Boston**

Marcus and Tobias where heading towards the great hall, when the lights around them began to flicker. A sound like thunder filled the air, as the ground shook beneath their feet. They grabbed onto the wall for support, as the tremor spread throughout the mansion.

"That's no earthquake." Marcus stated, the hairs on the nape of his neck standing on end, as a dark energy filled the air.

"The seal?" Tobias asked fearfully.

"Broken." Marcus stated, "It's finally happened Tobias." he said grimly. "The hellmouth's have opened."

**Revello Drive**

Buffy hesitated as she approached her house. The only sign of any thing being out of the ordinary, was the fact that her front door was standing wide open. While this might not seem like much to worry about, the fact that she lived on a hell mouth and faced constant threat from demonic forces gave her cause for concern, especially as she knew that her friends wouldn't be so careless as to give any bad guys an open invitation to her home.

Cautiously approaching her front porch, she removed the knife from her waistband, and peered round the door. She couldn't sense anything hell mouthy at the moment, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anything lurking somewhere in the house. Slipping through the door, she crept into the living area, her senses on full alert, trying to sense anything hiding in the darkness. Hearing a groan coming from the corner of the room, she gripped her knife tightly, as she made her way towards the upturned couch.

Reaching out with one hand, she quickly grabbed the arm of the couch and flipped it over, before jumping back into a defensive stance. However when she saw who it was, she quickly dropped the knife and knelt beside the prone form.

"Willow?" she whispered, gently shaking her friend.

The Wicca groaned, "I don't wanna go on the ghost train." she mumbled, swatting at Buffy's hand.

Buffy sighed in relief, "Willow are you okay?" she asked.

"Buffy?" the red head asked looking up at her friend blearily. "There was this demony thing, w-we couldn't stop it." she stammered, trying to sit up.

"Are you hurt?" Buffy asked in concern.

"No I don't think so, I've just got a sore head." Willow replied.

"I need to go and make sure Faith and Tara are okay, can you check on Cordelia for me?" Buffy asked.

Willow nodded, then winced as her head protested at the sudden movement. "Yeah I can do that."

Trying to fight down the panic that was threatening to overwhelm her, Buffy picked up her knife and stood up, heading for the basement stairs. She was fairly certain that the demon was no longer in the house, and if that was true, then it meant that it had gotten to Faith.

She hesitantly made her way down the basement stairs, terrified at what she would find at the bottom, she came to a halt when she saw Tara cradling Faith's prone form in her lap. "Tara?" She asked, her voice wavering.

"I-I think she's okay." Tara stammered, looking up at Buffy hopefully.

Buffy quickly knelt beside them and gently ran her hand through Faith's hair, pressing her fingers against the pulse point on her neck, she only relaxed when she felt it beating steadily beneath her fingers. "Thank God." she whispered. "What happened? Where did the demon go?" she asked looking round the basement for any signs of destruction.

"I don't k-know, I could feel t-the demons presence, t-then I felt and heard the voice that had came to us a-at the school." Tara tried to explain.

Buffy looked at her in puzzlement. "Voice?"

Tara nodded, "I don't t-think Willow remembers. B-But I heard a voice when we where doing t-the protection spell on the hell mouth. It h-helped us defeat the daywalkers, remember?." she said.

Buffy nodded absently as her mind went back to that day. "I remember, there was the light that burned them."

"Y-Yeah. It came to me again, it told me to let the Javfrach's h-have the entity." she stammered hesitantly, afraid of Buffy's reaction. "I-I didn't want to, b-but it said that Faith wouldn't be h-harmed."

"Tara it's ok, I'm not mad at you." Buffy said softly. "Everyone's safe at the moment, that's all I can ask for." she said, "Did this…voice…say anything else?" she asked.

"It s-said that out of the carnage c-comes purity, a-and that it has b-been foretold." she stammered.

Buffy sighed, "Sounds like there's a prophecy with our name on it." she said. "And I'm guessing that Olivia is either one of these Javfrach's or is working with them."

Tara jumped as Faith groaned and began to stir, seeing the look of concern in Buffy's eyes, she allowed her to take Faith into her arms. "I'll go and check on W-Willow and Cordelia." She whispered, deciding to give the two lovers their privacy.

Buffy gently shifted Faith's weight in her arms, caressing her cheek as she coaxed her mate awake. "It's okay baby, you're safe now." she whispered softly.

Faith groaned as her eyes fluttered open, she blinked up at Buffy groggily, before taking in her surroundings. Confusion evident on her face, as she looked up at her mate, "B? what the hell's going on?" she asked.

**Tbc. **

**A/N: Sorry for the abrupt ending to the chapter, but at least Faith's back to normal now, or is she: -)**

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	18. Chapter 18

**Author's note: Thanks for the reviews, surprised you still remember this fic lol, been that long since I've posted. At least this update was a bit quicker than the last :-)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns everything.**

**Chapter 18 **

**Revello Drive**

Faith looked up at Buffy in concern as she saw tears welling up in her mates eyes. Lifting her hand, she gently brushed a stray tear from her cheek. Noticing for the first time, the haunted look on her mates face. "Buffy?" she asked softly.

Upon hearing her name, what little control Buffy had on her emotions slipped, and she couldn't help the sob that escaped her lips. "God…Faith."

Faith immediately sat up and pulled Buffy into her arms, "Sssh baby it's okay." she said whispering words of comfort in her ear.

Buffy buried her face in Faith's neck, revelling in the feel of being held again, she felt Faith pressing soft kisses against the side of her head, the action bringing fresh tears to her eyes. Pulling back, to look at her mates face, she studied her eyes intently. The madness was gone, all she could see now was confusion, concern, and love, which where directed at her, smiling softly she pulled Faith in for a kiss.

It was tentative and soft, Buffy sighed into the kiss, before breaking away, and resting her forehead against Faith's. "I missed you so much." she whispered, her eyes closed as she took in her mates scent.

**Meanwhile Upstairs.**

Cordelia groaned as she pressed the ice pack to her face, which was quickly coming out in a lovely shade of purple. "Why do they always go for the face." she moaned.

"Tell me about it." Willow said, gingerly pressing her fingers against the large bump forming on the back of her head. "I'm still seeing twinkly stars, although they are pretty."

"Did Drake come back with Buffy?" Cordelia asked in concern.

Willow frowned, "I didn't see him, but I had my eyes closed, from my unscheduled nap time." She said.

They both jumped as they head someone rush in the front door. "Buffy, Olivia's been taken from the hospital, there was an explosion-" Giles trailed off as he saw the damage in the living room, "Dear Lord what happened?" he asked seeing the shaken forms of Willow and Cordelia.

"A d-demon came for the entity." Tara explained, coming out of the kitchen with a mug of herbal tea which she handed to Willow a mug of herbal tea, who accepted it gratefully.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked in concern. "Buffy, where is she?"

"We all got off lightly considering." Cordelia mumbled, holding an ice pack against her cheek, "Buffy's down in the basement with Faith." None of them mentioned anything about Olivia's involvement in the attack, they decided it was a matter best left for Buffy to explain. If anyone had a chance of getting Giles to listen to reason, it was her.

**Meanwhile Basement **

The two of them sat on the cot, Faith's chains had been discarded, and she now sat against the wall, with Buffy sat between her legs, her back resting against her chest. "So what happened with the mind walk thing, how did I end up down here?" she asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"Baby that was a week ago." Buffy said, absently stroking Faith's arms, which where wrapped round her middle.

"What? But, I thought…a week?" she asked in surprise. "Damn, what did I miss?" she felt Buffy stop her actions, and knew that whatever had happened while she'd been AWOL hadn't been good. Sighing sadly she rested her head against her mates, "It's bad isn't it." she stated quietly.

Buffy nodded gently, "There's some things you need to know-" she started, before being interrupted by the basement door opening. They both looked up to see Giles descending the stairs, when he caught sight of them on the cot, he froze and his face darkened.

"What is she doing loose?" He asked coldly.

"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed.

"The hospital phoned, there was an explosion reported on the floor where Olivia was kept." he explained, "She's been taken Buffy, something's taken her, and they're doing God only knows what to her, and it's because of _her!" _he exclaimed gesturing at Faith, who flinched at the look of fury in his eyes.

"Faith has nothing to do with this." Buffy stated firmly, getting up from the cot, and standing protectively in front of her girlfriend. "So don't you _dare_ blame this on her."

Giles looked at Buffy incredulously. "Need I remind you that she's the one that attacked Olivia in the first place."

"Buffy?" Faith asked anxiously.

Buffy laid a reassuring hand on Faith's arm, "You didn't baby, trust me." she said softly.

"What?" Giles asked in disbelief.

Ignoring her watcher she kept her gaze on her girlfriend, "It's okay, I'll explain everything. But I need to speak to Giles alone for a minute."

Faith hesitated, not wanting to leave her mate alone with the irate watcher, even though she knew he would never harm her. Buffy saw her indecision and smiled reassuringly, "It's okay I'll be up soon." she whispered. Faith nodded and Buffy watched as she reluctantly left the basement. Once she was sure that Faith had left, she spun back round to face her watcher.

"She can't remember anything Giles, she doesn't know anything from when the entity had taken over." she explained.

"And that makes it alright?" he asked.

"No I'm not saying that, what I'm saying is that you cut her some slack. I've just got her back, she needs to adjust." She said calmly. "Give me a chance to explain everything to her before you go giving her the third degree."

Giles visibly tensed at her comment, "I'm glad that she's returned to us, however I have a right to be angry, after everything that's happened the last few days, you can't expect me to suddenly welcome Faith back with open arms, and pretend that everything is okay." he said. "Especially with what she did to Olivia-"

"She didn't do those things, what part of that can't you understand!" she exclaimed.

"You're suddenly so quick to trust her, after everything that's happened. While I understand that Faith didn't do those things, the creature that did wore her face."

Buffy could only stare at him in disbelief. "I trust Faith with my life." she stated firmly. "And I know for a fact that she didn't harm a single hair on Olivia's head, she's playing you Giles, why can't you see that?!"

"This is nonsense Buffy. You where there when Olivia was attacked, you saw what I saw!!" Giles exclaimed.

Buffy shook her head, "No." she said firmly. "What we saw was Faith in wolf form, you just assumed she'd attacked her. Well why was there no blood on her fur, or her claws, if she'd really hurt Olivia, then why wasn't she covered in her blood?" she said, taking a step closer to Giles, "Why did Olivia go in my room? If she's really as smart as you say she is, she'd know better than to go into a room alone with an unstable werewolf. Unless she went in to provoke her, did you ever think of that? Did you ever think that Olivia went in so that she could provoke the entity into making an appearance?"

"I've heard enough of this." Giles said, he was about to head towards the stairs but Buffy stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"I know it seems hard to believe but it's the truth." she said, softly. "Giles, please think about it. She's been back in you're life for less than four days and you're acting like a love sick teenager, something's not right."

Giles looked down at where Buffy's hand lay, and shrugged it off. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but for some reason you can't seem to accept that I'm happy, you have you're soul mate, why can't I have mine. Get over you're petty jealousy and let me go and find Olivia."

Buffy watched as he headed for the basement stairs. She knew she couldn't let him leave the house, they needed him here, and if he left now he might not come back. Looking around for some inspiration, she found the tranquilliser gun, sitting on the chair where Giles had left it earlier. Snatching it up, she took aim and fired a dart into her watchers back.

"Buffy what -" Giles started, before the dart took effect and he started to lose consciousness. Buffy caught him as he fell and gently lowered him to the ground.

"I'm sorry Giles, but it's for your own good." she whispered, gently straightening his glasses, before hurrying up stairs. She'd need Willow and Tara to find out what mojo, Olivia had done to Giles, and get them to reverse it ASAP. If Tara's mysterious voice was to be believed, then all hell was about to break loose, literally.

**Initiative compound **

Banging and roaring could be heard from the holding cells, as the hostiles reacted to the release of dark energy that could only come from the hellmouth.

"What's gotten into them?" Professor Walsh asked, raising her voice to be heard above the din.

Wesley frowned, "I'm not sure, but whatever it is doesn't bode well." he said.

"Well I suggest you find out, you know that we still need a Garou's energy in order to complete the OMEGA project." she replied shortly. "Our soldiers won't be complete without it, if something is brewing we will need the manpower to deal with it."

"The tracer that we planted on the Garou, show's that she is still residing at the slayers home." Wesley explained. "You know as well as I do, that to storm in and take her, would result in dire consequences for us. The slayer would destroy us."

"I understand you're concerns, but -" She started, but before she could finish, she was interrupted by a breathless Riley.

"Ma'am, there's reports of a Garou spotted near the hospital." he said.

Wesley looked at him in confusion, "What? But that's impossible-"

"It doesn't matter." Professor Walsh snapped cutting him off, "I want you to take you're men, and capture the Garou." she ordered, turning to Riley, "We need it alive. It looks like it's you're lucky night Agent Finn, are you ready to undertake you're part in the OMEGA project?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am." he replied.

She smiled, "Well go and retrieve you're donor."

Riley nodded and left the holding area. Professor Walsh watched him leave, before turning to Wesley who stood grim faced beside her. "Tonight's the night, my army will be complete." she said, "With Riley leading them we'll be unstoppable."

Tbc.


End file.
